


Mystic Messenger

by tsukithewolf



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Abuse, F/M, Family relationship problems, Fluff, Humor, Major Spoilers for 707 route - Freeform, Rating subject to change, Real Life Mystic Messenger AU, Romance, Spoilers for the Secret Endings as well, Tags Subject to Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 15:22:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 61,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8583625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsukithewolf/pseuds/tsukithewolf
Summary: Mystic Messenger was a phone game that you downloaded because it sounded like an interesting dating sim game. You tended to get sucked into such games.You didn't expect to literally be sucked into it.





	1. Prologue

You had downloaded the game on a whim. You had seen many people talk about it over the internet, and seeing some of their reactions had perked your interest. You weren’t even sure of how to play the game or any of the characters. You just knew that everyone loved all of the characters in it and that you kind of knew their names. You also knew that it was a dating sim with a twist on it? You hadn’t searched for any spoilers, so you had gone into the game blind.

 

Maybe that’s how you had ended up in such a strange scenario.

 

The game started off interestingly enough. You were in a “chatroom” with a mysterious person by the name of “Unknown”. Not suspicious at all, you thought. This wasn’t your first dating sim you had played, but this was definitely a new twist to it. Unknown had wanted you to return a phone to a specific address, but was unable to go there himself. You had figured it was because he was super sketchy.

 

There were a couple of prerecorded responses that you could choose to answer him. Some of them were definitely more realistic than others, but you weren’t about to argue with the stranger in a game. You wanted the game to progress, so you had followed along with his instructions (although since you wanted to be truthful, you made it at least a little bit difficult for Unknown to convince you).

 

The game had taken you to an almost-Visual Novel moment where you were standing in front of an apartment door. You had frowned at your phone. Why was there a keypad on an apartment door? Was it really just an apartment?

 

Unknown had known about the keypad. He had asked you about it. You were reluctant to just enter an apartment (even in just a game) so you had recommended ringing the doorbell considering it was an option. Nobody answered. You supposed that was pretty obvious. So you entered the code and entered the house.

 

That’s when things went sideways.

 

There was a loud screech that reminded you of the days of dial-up computers. At first you thought it had been echoing from your phone, but then realized from the pain in your head that it was actually coming  _ from _ your mind. It was almost as if you were wearing the best headphones in the world, only it was  _ screeching in your head _ . The hairs on your body stood on end and you gasped as electricity rocked through you. What the hell was happening? 

 

The world around you turned black and green, and you thought you saw something that reminded you of  _ The Matrix _ . Numbers skittered across your vision and your ears popped when a flash occurred. You could only squeeze your eyes shut and fall to your knees, clutching your phone to your chest, unable to block out the eruption of the senses.

 

The shrieking stopped abruptly, but the ringing in your ears continued for a few more moments. Your head throbbed, agonized by the attack. Had your phone  _ electrocuted _ you? You didn’t know. You could barely think. You found yourself collapsed on the floor of a place you didn’t recognize, but your mind was swimming too much to even really process it. You could only think to grab your phone and squint at the screen, trying to focus around the fuzziness in your head. 

 

Whatever had happened to you, your phone was still working properly. The game was still going, and it appeared to still be in chatroom mode. All the people talking, you realized, must be the datable characters. They all had their own pictures and names and colors, so it helped your mind recognize there were multiple people chatting. There were even adorable animated emoticons. They had chatted amongst themselves a bit before the character “707” noticed your name on the chatroom as well and called you out on it.

 

You couldn’t respond to them, though. Your head was still swimming. You were barely comprehending what you were reading and oftentimes you had to scroll back up to read what had just been said because it was going too fast for you to keep up. So you focused on just reading.

 

And then the game froze and a text box appeared, offering you a single response for you to choose.

 

It was like that for the rest of the chat. You were introduced to each member of the RFA and were given a taste of each of their personalities. You could tell right away that they were all pretty friendly and were clearly good friends with each other (not including the bickering Jumin Han and ZEN). You had ridden along with the chat deciding it would be better to focus on one thing while your mind reoriented itself. You could worry about your health in a minute.

 

The game assigned you a job in the RFA as a person who answered emails for a party that was supposed to occur who-knows-when. You had agreed to do it cheerfully, although in real life you weren’t so sure you would just join a group of strangers. You could do all the messaging and such through your phone, they explained. At least it wasn’t your typical game.

 

It wasn’t until everyone in the chatroom had logged off of the chat and you had exited to the main screen of the app to see all the little tidbits to it did you finally look up from your phone. And your stomach promptly fell out through your feet. This wasn’t your house. This wasn’t your room. There were drawers and a bed and a computer, but none of it was yours. But you recognized it anyway. You had just seen it on your game’s screen a moment ago before your phone had electrocuted you. 

 

“N-No way . . .” You shakily climbed to your feet and touched the bed. It was real. Everything was real. the scent of the room was completely different from your own. There was an almost staleness to the air, and you noticed a very fine layer of dust on most of the things. The house didn’t looked lived-in at all. Outside of the windows was a city you didn’t recognize, and your legs collapsed beneath you.

 

You didn’t want to believe it, but somehow you had entered the game.

 

Or you were slowly dying after being electrocuted by your phone. Maybe you were in a coma? 

 

Considering yourself in the game seemed a lot less bleak, in your opinion.

 

And then your phone began to ping with messages. You lifted the phone up to unlock it, your hands shaking a bit. You may have been going into shock. You weren’t sure. There were a couple of messages on the RFA app from 707 (or was it Luciel? Didn’t someone call him Luciel? Or Seven?), Zen, and Yoosung, but it was Unknown’s that got you.

 

> **Unknown:** It’ll be really fun from now on. Enjoy your time with everyone. I’ll go get you soon.

  
Maybe you had signed up for something very dangerous.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not positive on how fast or slow the pacing for this story will be. However I do know that because I've already essentially rehashed the MM story in my Trade Mistakes story, I'm not super interested in doing it again. Instead this story will be focusing a bit more on the "You have entered a game" part of the story, as well as the effects of that.
> 
> That being said, here's at least an update. I'll probably have another one too later on today.
> 
> Thank you everyone for the feedback and how many seem interested in this story! I love especially the long reviews I get, but all feedback is wonderful. So don't ever be embarrassed about even just saying "I love it!"

It had been long enough now for you to realize that you were definitely not imagining everything. It had been nearly four days (it was evening at the moment) since you had “arrived” wherever you were at, and you had to say . . . you could’ve arrived in a worse game. Like if you had to choose a game to randomly spawn into and begin a new life at (was this really beginning a new life? You had kind of just been swept along with the plot, if you were being totally honest), this game would fall just below “Pokémon” and “Animal Crossing”. MAYBE “Rune Factory” as well. Definitely in your top five.

To be honest, you hadn’t done very much. The first day you had lived in Rika’s apartment, you freaked out over what was happening to you. You could go outside and explore the world to your liking just as if it was the real world. You apparently had money on the card that was in your purse (because you apparently had a purse with your credentials in the game), so you weren’t too worried about paying for things. You could communicate with everyone as if you were speaking Korean, but you heard everyone talking to you as if they were speaking your language instead. You weren’t about to point this out to anyone. Clearly to them you must have been speaking Korean back. Thank God for game mechanics and auto-translations.

You knew that you had a new job to do as new party coordinator of the RFA, but did you have a different job in this world? You didn’t know. If you did, you were definitely going to get fired. You had nothing in your purse that would tell you of your life here in the game. Everything looked like your stuff too (your wallet and your purse and your ID, although it was changed so that it was a Korean ID apparently), however there were a lot of things that weren’t yours. You had to go shopping for clothing because you had nothing but the clothes you had been transported to the game in. You also had needed to go shopping. You had been filled with anxiety the entire time worrying that your card would be declined and you would be thoroughly screwed. But it was never declined, and you got the stuff that you had needed to get. Your phone, also, was not your phone. It was clearly the phone that the “main character” (you mentally called her MC much like the fandom did) of the game used, because it didn’t have your personalization. You had spent that first night after you had gone shopping personalizing the phone and getting your games back on it. Sorry MC, but if you were going to be living there, then you were going to make that phone yours.

When you weren’t doing anything priority (such as shopping or cleaning the dusty house), you were chatting with the RFA members on your phone. The app allowed you to talk to them via instant messages, phone calls, or over the messenger itself. You could only call them through the app, however, because your actual phone was blank of any names or numbers. You . . . probably didn’t have family in this world? You didn’t know how much of your life was affected by MC’s previous life. You hoped you didn’t have to fake it for her fake parents. Because you didn’t think you looked much like MC.

At first you had found it really strange hearing the RFA members call you on the phone. It had startled you the first time it had occurred, because you didn’t need to have the app up for the phone call to go through. You had fumbled and futzed around for so long, dithering in your nervousness to pick up the phone, that you had missed the call. You had felt guilty and immediately called back, nervous, but Zen had been so sweet to you and so kind that you found yourself relaxing quickly. It was like that with most of the RFA members, you’d noticed. They were all friendly, however Jumin and Jaehee both were somewhat distant. You could understand that. You were a complete stranger to them, after all, and Jumin was a tiny bit intimidating. However, your phone calls with them usually ended well even if Jumin could be a bit short.

Yoosung, Zen, and 707 (should you call him Seven or Luciel?) were most definitely the friendliest. You found companionship with Yoosung (you could tell you could be good friends with him), and although Zen’s flirting flustered you at times (and even occasionally made you uncomfortable), you really enjoyed his personality. Admittedly it could be a tad annoying how full of himself he was, but you could easily look past it because he was a sweetheart with a good personality and a somewhat bad mouth.

Seven was the one you got along best with, though. His hilarious jokes and his playful personality instantly triggered the playfulness in you. You two were definitely cut from the same cloth. Even if at times he could be incomprehensible, you were quick to catch onto when he was playing around with someone. And you gladly joined in. Bullying Jumin and Yoosung was just too easy, and it cracked you up to do so.

Oh, you realized while sitting on your couch one day and grinning. Shit, you may have just found out the guy you would’ve gone for had you not been sucked into the game. Ah, that was disappointing. Did the game still work the same way if you were literally in it? You weren’t sure that you could still date one of the characters the way you were. You wouldn’t mind it . . . but still. You wouldn’t dream of pursuing anything unless things leaned that way.

Besides, you had a bigger issue. An insecurity of sorts. While you could type your own messages and talk to the others normally over the phone, while you were in the chatrooms you could only choose what you assumed were game answers. Some of them were admittedly things that you would say, but they weren’t often the first thing you would say. You also didn’t respond as often in the chatroom as you would’ve if you could write your own messages. The others have actually pointed it out to you over the phone before how much chattier you were when not on the chatroom.

The problem with wanting (or, rather, hoping) the dating portion of the game was still in effect was because most of your conversations with the others occurred in the chatrooms. And if none of the messages in the chatrooms were really your words . . . were you lying to them? Did they think you were a different person than you really were? It wasn’t like you could ask them straight out.

You had hinted a couple of times (mostly out of messenger, but hilariously enough the game let you break the fourth wall on occasion) that you weren’t really from this world and that this was all a game to you, but none of the others took you seriously. Or you were brushed off thinking that you were just joking around like you tended to do. You supposed that you deserved that. You weren’t sure the game was going to let you break the rules. And even if it did (it didn’t seem to have any kind of punishment system, after all) it wasn’t like you could prove anything to the others. Only one of them actually knew where you lived currently and knew what you looked like. How would you be able to prove anything?

That actually left you with quite the interesting question.

You called Seven up one night when it had seemed that in the chatroom Seven wasn’t too busy. Those were the best times to contact the RFA was when they weren’t doing anything related to their jobs. Or in Yoosung’s case, gaming. Seven answered the phone cheerfully enough, making a joke at you, and you didn’t resist playing back. Admittedly you got caught up in his little game, giggling, before he said that he had to leave soon because of work.

“Oh! Seven, wait!” You cried.

“Yes~?” He sang.

“What kind of information did you find on me when you looked me up?” You wondered if that sounded suspicious. You didn’t think it sounded suspicious, right?

“I found everything, of course! Your online accounts, your bank password, what kind of underwear you have . . .”

“You’re lying!” You gasped, head whipping to look at your dresser. You had just bought those underwear! There’s no way he could know!

Seven laughed over the phone. “Okay yeah, I’m lying about the last part. Although I did notice that you bought a lot of clothes recently soooo . . .”

You couldn’t really get mad. You were slightly embarrassed, but mostly impressed. “Does that mean you look up my records a lot? I guess I’ll have to pay for my . . . things . . .” you let the insinuation hang heavily in your tone, “with cash then.”

You heard Seven sputter and you pumped your fist with joy. Yes! You finally one-upped him! Revenge was sweet. “Gah! D-Don’t tell me those kinds of things!!”

“Oh? I was only referring to clothing . . .” You lied innocently.

“For the sake of my health I’ll pretend you’re telling the truth.” You could still hear the fluster in his voice. Your heart fluttered a little in your chest. Ah, crap. You were falling for this dork, weren’t you? It was always the silly ones.

You laughed, your cheeks feeling warm, before you dropped your voice to be more serious. Crap, he was super distracting. It was so easy for you to get caught up in his games. Trouble! “No, but seriously Seven. What did you find? Like . . . my birthday and stuff.”

“What weird questions.” He pointed out, and you cringed a bit. Yeah, you were being super suspicious. Wait, did that really matter? Didn’t you want them to know? Gah, you weren’t sure. Awkward! You were being awkward! This guy is a secret agent!!

Wait! You knew how to recover from this! “Prove to me that you actually did find my information!” You challenged. “Come on, come on! Prove it, God Seven! Your disciple implores you!”

“Well if my disciple wishes to hear about herself, then so be it!” He crowed. You had a feeling you hadn’t completely covered for yourself, but at least you were going to get the information you wanted. Seven proceeded to tell you true facts about yourself. He knew your birthday, your height, your weight, hair and eye color. He proved to find some pictures of you, but you had no idea how he could find it. However, your family and health history was . . . incorrect. There were a couple of things correct, but the names of your family members, ages, and all of that . . . were wrong. They sounded like filler names. Even your health history sounded like something a writer could make up off the top of their heads. A broken bone here, a cough there, shots for every sickness you can get in childhood. The works. It seemed the game could only go so far with actual information about you. You didn’t know whether to be relieved or not.

“Well?” Seven asked when he had finished listing off a number of things about “you”. “Were you impressed? Has God Seven satisfied his disciple? I’m awesome, right? I did well, right?”

His eagerness was adorable. You just had to praise him. “That’s amazing! I guess you really do know everything about me!”

“Well, not everything.” He admitted easily. “I only know about stuff I can find online. I don’t know about you, you know? Besides, I’d rather you just tell me.” Oh. That was . . . really flattering. Crap, this was bad for your heart. You might have just swooned a bit. “But! You’ll have to tell me another time. I’ve really got to go. My boss will kill me if I don’t do my work.” He whined and then sighed. You gave a small smile at your knees, sympathetic. He seemed like he always had work to do.

“Okay. But before you go, you forgot a key piece of information about me!”

“Oh? What’s that? Now I have to know!”

“My three sizes are-”

“GAH!! N-NO, don’t tell me that!! Keep it PG-13!!”

He hung up on you then with a quick goodbye, and you rolled over to laugh into your pillow.


	3. Chapter 2

Before you knew it, you were already on day five of living in the game. Almost a full week. You wondered if the real world was still going while you were in the game. Would your parents miss you? You would probably be fired from your job. You were missing school too. You were going to be in so much trouble when you left the game. How would you even explain anything to your family and friends? You hoped that time was frozen for them.

 

But . . . you had to admit you were having a lot of fun. This was a lot more exciting than your real life. This place was entirely new to you, and it was a completely new culture. You kept surprising people on the street who saw you speaking fluent Korean (even if you really weren’t). It was pretty funny. It was all such an adventure. You had almost completely forgotten about the hacker during that time, so caught up as you were in your new life and your new friends and with helping prepare for the party.

 

That is until the hacker appeared again. The chatroom was being weird, and now Seven had even more work to do. People in the group received strange emails. It seemed that the game had much more of a plot than you had anticipated. The message that Unknown had sent you before seemed even more ominous. You weren’t sure whether to bring it up with the others or not. The game didn’t ever give you the option while in the chatrooms, so no help or hint for you there. You decided against bringing it up. They already knew that Unknown was most likely a threat anyway.

 

In the meantime, you basked in the attention you received from the others. You may have been imagining it . . . but Seven seemed to be attracted to you as well. Or, at least, he seemed a lot more attentive when you were online. It was only when you called him and played rock-paper-scissors over the phone did you realize that yes, Seven did indeed have feelings for you. He pretty much confessed to you via a song, which you had sang back to him much to his delight. You were sure he could see your grin on your face considering you had stood in the CCTV’s line of sight while you talked to him.

 

It made your heart race and your body feel jittery. You hadn’t expected to actually _fall_ for one of the characters when you had decided to play the dating game. Yes, there were always characters that you preferred . . . but you’d never had _real_ feelings for any of them. This was a first for you. Would it be alright for you if you fell in love for real with a video game character? This was your life now . . . unless something happened.

 

You wished that you had done a little bit more research on the game. You didn’t know what the end of the game entailed, but it just had to do with the plot that was suddenly developing. You could see now that things would only escalate from here. Everyone else wasn’t worried, but you knew games well. You would have to wait for it to reach a climax.

 

You didn’t expect the bomb.

 

“DON’T MOVE!!” Seven told you over the phone, which only spiked your anxiety. “I’m so sorry about this! I’ll take care of it, okay? So just stay in the apartment! Don’t let anyone in, and _don’t_ go out, do you hear me?”

 

“Yes! I’ve got it!” You would admit to being scared. You were living with a freaking _bomb_ after all! A bomb that the hacker had managed to get control over. When Seven had mentioned the special security system, you had thought it would just be some kind of high tech thing, like the password lock on the door! Zen and Yoosung were right to freak out, because you certainly were. You didn’t know what dying in a video game meant for you. Even if in the end it would just make you go back to your world, you didn’t _want_ to die!

 

You trusted Seven, though. It was surprising that he was going to come all the way to the apartment considering this entire time he had been avoiding all suggestions to do so. He had kept making excuses. You suspected it was because he didn’t know how to handle his feelings for you. He kept pushing you away even as he himself kept trying to get closer to you. You recognized that kind of behavior from other dating games. Seven had some kind of dark secret . . . but then again it could also be because he worked for a secret agency. Knowing your tropes, it meant that if he became romantically involved with you, then you would be “taken care of”. That wasn’t very intimidating to you, though. You had a bomb to worry about.

 

You listened to everyone when they made sure to reassure you of how terrible the situation was, but also confirm that you were alright. You didn’t like making everyone panic, but their worry for you kept you calmer. You couldn’t exactly show them in the chatroom how worried you were (although there were some exaggerated options about being scared, but you preferred the choices that explained how you were trusting Seven instead), but over text and through calls they understood. They all got security guards. You got a bomb. Well, and now Seven.

 

Things went from bad to worse very quickly, however. Before Seven could arrive to help you, the glass to the window shattered and a man crawled in. He looked to be around your age, but the sight of him scared you. How had he just broken into a window that was on the fourteenth floor?! You knew immediately that this had to be Unknown. He had warned he would come to get you. You just hadn’t expected him to come so soon.

 

You refused to go with him, trying to stay out of his grabbing range. You didn’t have anything around you that would be a good weapon, but you would fight if you had to. Or rather you would, if it wasn’t for the fact that you could see a switch in his hand. You didn’t even have to guess what that switch was for. Was there any way you could get a hold of it? You weren’t sure you could fight him off. You prayed that Seven was nearby and called for his help.

 

It seemed that the laws of the game were on your side. Seven did arrive, entering the apartment without realizing what he was walking into. You screamed for his help and he ran into the room to find Unknown grabbing you, holding you to him as a threat. You had become a hostage. Seven tried to talk him down, but as soon as Unknown removed the mask he had been wearing over the lower half of his face, Seven paled. He recognized him somehow. Seven even called him by Unknown’s name, which only enraged Unknown more. You didn’t know who “Saeran” was, but he had some huge problem with Seven.

 

As soon as Seven commanded it, you bit down hard on Saeran’s arm. The man cried out and released you instinctively as around you an alarm went off. Fear spiked through you as Seven yelled at Saeran to get away. As soon as Saeran was gone, the alarm stopped. It had been the security system recognizing him as an intruder. You had brushed death, you realized.

 

You learned very quickly that Saeran was Seven’s twin brother, and you gaped at him in shock. An evil twin brother? It was cliché but . . . what the hell kind of dating game was this?! You really _had_ signed up for something extremely dangerous! No, it didn’t matter what kind of game it was. This was honestly affecting Seven. It may be a game to you, but this was real life for him. He was honestly hurt and shocked. You didn’t know the story between the brothers, but you wanted to help in any way that you could.

 

However, Seven was a different person when not in the chatroom or on the phone. The glimpse of the sad person you had seen before -the one that pushed you away- seemed to be the true Seven. Although you didn’t believe a person could fake that kind of humor. You thought both sides of Seven were him. You just wished you could help him be happy again, but he would tell you to leave him alone. That he was busy. That he didn’t want you talking to him.

 

You did so anyway. He could be stubborn, but you were stubborn too.

 

“Why are you bothering me again? I have to work, you know.” Seven grumbled at you as you scooted over to sit by him. You had been asking him questions about what he was doing on the computer, although you didn’t understand a lot of what he was saying. You had never been super proficient at computers and stuff.

 

“I want to talk to you.” You confessed readily enough. “Actually talk to you considering I can’t type in the chatroom.”

 

“What do you mean?” He asked, confused. “Is something wrong with the chatroom?”

 

You froze, realizing what you had just given away and realizing the possibilities of it. Seven was literally right next to you. You could actually prove to them what you were hinting at before. Especially so since Seven was a hacker, although you didn’t know if he could do anything about it. He would know more about games and how they worked than you did, after all.

 

But at the same time, Seven was already stressed out enough. You knew that him abandoning his job and leaving his house would not bode well for him. Then he had the troubles that came along with just discovering his brother as the hacker _and_ dealing with the fact that Saeran was attacking the RFA. On top of ALL of that, he needed to completely secure the special security system once again. He made it sound like he had to practically rewrite the code. You couldn’t in good conscious add another thing to his workload.

 

“The chatroom is fine.” You assured him with a smile that you hoped was believable.

 

“Then what are you talking about?” He demanded. You could tell you hadn’t fooled him. Who would’ve thought you would have to try to fool a secret agent? You didn’t sign up for this.

 

“It’s nothing.” You insisted. “I assure you that it’s nothing to do with the hacker or anything dangerous!”

 

Seven looked doubtful. He sighed, clearly frustrated, and held out his hand to you. “Let me see the app.”

 

You held your phone closer and set your jaw stubbornly. “No.”

 

“What? Just let me see it!”

 

“No!”

 

“God, why are you being so stubborn? If there’s nothing wrong with it, then you should be able to just show me!” He reached for your phone, invading your personal space. While you liked the fact that he was close, you didn’t like that he was trying to take your phone from you. You stretched out your arm to hold it away from him and tried to wiggle away.

 

“Stop! No!”

 

“Show me!”

 

“Ugh, no! You have enough on your mind! You don’t need to worry about this!! It’s not priority!”

 

“Just-AHA!!” He snatched the phone away finally, and flung himself to the side as you tried to tackle him to get it back.

 

“Seven!!” You whined and tried to grab for it back, but he held it out of your reach. You could see him typing one-handed on it. You didn’t doubt that he knew your password. It made you more desperate. “Wait!” You cried as he brought the unlocked phone down to face level. He listened to you, pausing in what he was doing. “Wait, please. Let me try to explain first, or it won’t make any sense.”

 

“Explain what?” He asked, and it seemed his grumpiness had faded somewhat to be replaced by the person you had grown to know over the last few days. You were relieved that he was willing to listen to you. But how were you supposed to tell him? You had to make him believe you. What would it mean then if you broke fourth wall? Would you corrupt the game somehow? But you didn’t want to believe that every one of your interactions with your friends (because they _were_ your friends now. They were real people to you!) was planned by a video game.

 

You sighed and ran a hand into your hair. “Do you . . . remember when I said that this was a game to me? Or hinted that I’m just playing a game while talking to you guys?”

 

Seven frowned a bit. “Sort of?”

 

“Well . . . I wasn’t joking. This . . . this world?” You motioned around you both. “It’s a video game for me. Like, literally.” You could tell you were losing him. Anxiety stabbed your heart. Did Seven think you were crazy? You didn’t want your crush thinking that you were crazy. You were already too deep into your feelings with him to withstand driving him away because he thought you were insane. “I know I sound crazy! But I can prove it.” You pointed at the phone. “I can prove it with the app. Can I see my phone?”

 

Seven glanced at the phone, considering, before looking back at you. He didn’t hand over the device yet. “What do you mean?” He asked carefully, probably hiding his doubt. You tried not to let it get to you too much, and failed at it. You stuttered a bit as you explained,

 

“A couple days back when you met me, I downloaded a phone app that was a game. And when I tried to play that game’s storyline, I was introduced to Unknown. Everything I told you about our interaction was real, but when I got to ‘Rika’s apartment’,” you made sure to put quotes around it to let him know you were referring to in the game, “I got . . . zapped. I think my phone shocked me or something? And the next thing I know I’m _actually_ in Rika’s apartment. And I was in the chatroom with you guys. I swear I’m telling the truth!” You said all of it very quickly. You hoped that you didn’t slur too much in your haste to explain.

 

Seven stared at you with his eyebrows raised. You cursed yourself mentally. It sounded even more insane said aloud, let alone to Seven of all people. He was already being cruel to you . . . you didn’t want to give him more reason to ignore you.

 

“You’re right. That all does sound really insane.” He finally said after a long silence. “And I don’t think I should believe you. It’s impossible, after all.” You slumped, defeated by his words. You looked like an idiot. “Getting sucked into a video game? And it being ‘this world’? You really must think me stupid.” His every word hurt. You teared up a bit, humiliated. That caused him to stumble in his words. “A-Ah, but wait! Don’t cry! Listen!” You hesitantly looked at him, waiting to be bashed even more. “God, you look like I kicked your dog.” He scrubbed at his hair, looking away from you. “Look . . . I shouldn’t believe you. But . . . you don’t look like you’re lying. I can tell you honestly believe what you’re saying.”

 

“Because it’s the truth!” You cried.

 

“It’s crazy, though!” Seven insisted, and sighed again sharply, looking around. “Alright. Okay, show me your proof. I hope it’s good enough.”

 

“It will be, I swear! Look!” You took your phone back from him and accessed the chatroom. You were lucky in that Yoosung was on. “Look at the bottom. See how I can’t type anything? It just says play or pause.” You pointed to the bar at the bottom of the screen as Yoosung greeted you. You glanced at Seven, who was leaning over your shoulder, as he frowned.

 

“That’s not what I programmed.” He said slowly. You could see you were winning. Thank God.

 

“And see now? The bar changed because I get to respond now. But when I press the button . . .” You showed him how two possible choices for responses came up. Seven grabbed the phone from you, baffled.

 

“What the hell?”

 

“Do you see?” You asked carefully. You didn’t want to upset him. Finding out your life is a video game can’t be easy. Seven nodded numbly, running a hand into his hair and gripping it. The darkness under his eyes seemed even sharper now. You moved closer to him, taking the phone from him as you quickly answered Yoosung. You hardly needed to pay attention to the conversation when you usually only had two answers anyway. You focused on Seven as he lowered himself onto the couch. You could see his mind racing.

 

“This isn’t possible.” He said quietly.

 

“It shouldn’t be.” You agreed, lowering yourself beside him. You watched him, worried.

 

“So this entire time . . . this has all been just a video game? My life? My memories? This? My brother?” His voice was quickly becoming more frantic. “Shit! Oh God, I really can’t handle an existential crisis right now. My head is going to explode.”

 

“Luciel!” You dropped your phone aside, not caring about the conversation at the moment, and grabbed his hands where they were still gripping his hair. You pulled them away from his head and ducked so that he had to look at you. “No, don’t! I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you right now for exactly this reason. Shit, please don’t let your head explode. I really can’t clean that up. The stains will never come out of the couch.”

 

Seven huffed a slightly hysterical laugh. “All of this time I thought you had been playing around with the responses. But you’ve been serious. So does this mean everything I’ve done is meaningless? That my story is played out for me?”

 

“No!” You squeezed his hands again tightly. “Not at all! I’m certain that your decisions have been yours!” You gave a half-hearted shrug. “I don’t even know if we’re completely following the game rules right now. I know nothing about it.”

 

“You just randomly downloaded a strange app?” He asked somewhat incredulously.

 

“It looked fun.” You responded, pouting just a bit. You were willing to act if it meant it calmed him down. He was shaking a bit. You didn’t let him go. “How was I supposed to know something like this would happen? But!” You quickly continued before he could respond. “Let’s not talk about this anymore, please? For the sake of your sanity. This can wait. You have more important things to do, remember?”

 

“What does it matter, though?” Seven asked quietly, somewhat desperately. “It’s just a game.”

 

You made a buzzer noise and then giggled at his startled look. He really was feeling horrible if you could startle him just by doing that. “Wrong!” You poked his nose playfully, smiling. “It’s a game for _me_ , not for you or anybody else.” Your voice lowered a bit. You didn’t understand what you were feeling. “This is real life for you no matter what. I don’t know where the game ends, so I’ll help you in any way that I can.”

 

Seven stared at your linked hands for a few long moments, considering. You were sure this was a lot to take in. You hated that you had slipped up and dropped it on him right then and there. You wished you could press the reset button on your app, but you didn’t want to start over. You just wished you hadn’t been so stupid. He didn’t need this right now.

 

“Alright.” He finally said, standing up and dropping your hands. “I’ll pretend this didn’t happen while I deal with everything else. But we’re not done talking about this.” He dropped his eyes, his voice soft and closed off as he said, “After all, you need to go home eventually, right?”

 

You didn’t respond, instead just watching him sadly. Seven didn’t need an answer. He dropped himself back down in front of his computer and pulled his headphones on, shutting you out. You returned to your conversation with Yoosung, but your heart wasn’t in it. The silence in the apartment was loud.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It goes against so much of my writer's instinct to move the story so quickly. It makes me feel like this isn't a good chapter. Please let me know what you think. This story will move fast, but I'll slow it down soon enough after most of the game's plot has been gone through.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~I hope Seven doesn't feel OOC here. Gah.~~


	4. Chapter 3

You admired Seven’s ability to actually ignore the existential crisis he probably was going to have. Perhaps it was because he honestly did have too much on his mind and he didn’t want to let himself deal with this newest problem (honestly it really _could_ just wait). You, on the other hand, were not as lucky or able to control your thoughts. Being stuck inside the apartment with Seven gave you ample amounts of time to think. You tried to keep yourself distracted either by doing the laundry (which Seven yelled at you about because you had tried to wash his clothing too and apparently touching his dirty clothes was a _no_. You found his blushing protests to be adorable), playing games on your phone, chatting with the RFA members, or harassing Seven. Because even if _he_ was working, you wanted him to give you some attention as well.

You supposed that to an outsider that may seem a bit selfish of you. After all, Seven had commanded you multiple times to leave him alone so that he could focus on his work, but you knew that a portion of his attention was already on you. When he had watched over the CCTV camera, he claimed that he looked at you every 2.35 seconds (flatterer), so him being in the same house as you probably hadn’t knocked that number down too much. If you left the room for too long, usually Seven made the effort to find out where you were actually at. The proof was when you had “snuck” (you didn’t actually sneak out. You had only just left) out of the house in an effort to find him some Honey Buddha chips to help cheer him up. Seven had called you up about seven minutes afterwards to confront you about up and disappearing on him. He had been upset with you. You had apologized, but you mostly felt bad that you hadn’t been able to find the chips for him.

So when you were at home, you made sure to take time out to bother Seven. He wouldn’t say it, but you didn’t doubt it put his mind at least a little bit at ease. And besides, you honestly wanted to spend more time with him. You admired his looks and found yourself staring at his arms and hands. You wondered what it would be like to hug him properly and have him hug you back. The closest you had ever gotten to it was you leaning on him to see what he was doing.

For the most part you respected his space, but you called him often on the phone so that you could still force him to talk with you. It was better than actually sitting next to him because at least the phone call he could ignore if he _really_ wanted to, so it reassured your mild paranoia that really you were annoying him by bothering him. But with his gentle voice on the phone and how you could illicit his playful side still . . . it all just proved to you that your feelings were reciprocated. Each step you took with him -from his trust of V being shattered, to his fight with Yoosung, to your breakthrough with him, to his explanation of his past and his brother and his pain- only increased your feelings for him. And you weren’t afraid to admit it, especially when it caused his expression to soften and gaze at you with such quiet wonder.

You were in love. That was the only explanation you could muster for the thick syrupy feeling that clung to your heart and slowed your mind when your eyes met his.

But that only made your invasive thoughts more and more difficult to ignore. Because although there was so much going on, you still had so much time to think. Seven had been correct in saying that you would be leaving soon . . . or at least that was what you believed. You had no idea how right or wrong he was. You didn’t know when the game ended, or _if_ it would end for you. You knew that all dating games had some kind of end to them. Some of them were when you became “official” with the datable choice in the game. Judging by what you knew about these games, the game would probably end after the plot was wrapped up. And with you and Seven finding out what was hidden within the drawers of Rika’s apartment, as well as Seven’s determination to go to the Mint Eye headquarters itself, you knew that the plot would soon come to a head.

And that terrified you.

You didn’t want to bring it up with Seven. You still believed that you two had more important things to deal with than the fact that you were in a game. You pointedly tried to ignore all of those cruel thoughts and instead focused on your present. You kept yourself optimistic that the game wouldn’t end for you and that you were forever stuck with the RFA members and refused to listen to negative thoughts that always hovered at the back of your mind. You wanted to just enjoy being with Seven now that he had opened his heart to you. You would do your best to help him in any way that you could.

It was hard, though. You would hold his hand during the car ride to Mint Eye’s headquarters, and you would laugh with him about little things while you both could. You would smile at him and ache to kiss him, but you would hold yourself back. Seven may have accepted your feelings, but he hadn’t properly said he wanted to be in a relationship with you. So you would wait for him to make the first move. You would enjoy being _you_ and _him_ at the moment.

That is until Seven himself brought it up. He always seemed to surprise you.

You were just waking up from taking a nap in the car and both of you were still on the road. You were in a forest of some sort and the ground was kind of rough. Seven’s amazing car absorbed some of the shock of the ride on the old back road you were on, so you hadn’t been too disturbed while napping. You stretched as much as you could in the space with a small noise before relaxing and opening your eyes to gaze at your driver. He shot you an amused look and then huffed a laugh at the small confused tilt of your head.

“God, you’re just so cute.” Seven confessed while wiggling his fingers playfully at you. “Do you have to make such adorable noises just waking up?”

You flushed pleasurably and ducked your head. This Seven was so different than how he had been . . . just yesterday. Had he really been holding all of this back from you? It reminded you of the cute Seven from the chatrooms of the early days. You had known that both of them were the same Seven. Two halves of the same whole. Nobody had just one side to them. You certainly hadn’t considered yourself to be the definition of “cute”, but you certainly felt very cute when Seven complimented you like that.

“Are you okay driving still? You’ve been doing it for a while.” You instead changed the subject. You weren’t too sure, but you wouldn’t put it past Seven to develop a kick of making you blush. It would be just like him to do so. You could play at that game too if that was the case. You made a mental note of it.

“It’s fine. I like driving.” He reassured you as he followed the curve of the road. “It’s not too much farther from here anyway. I think only about another thirty minutes.”

Butterflies fluttered in your stomach. Thirty minutes before you two would be at the HQ of where Saeran and V worked. You wondered what you two would find there. You were certain that if you just followed Seven’s plan everything would work out just fine. “Okay.” You responded.

An air of expectance filled the car, and you turned your head to look at Seven. His eyebrows furrowed and he opened his mouth before pausing and letting out the air in a whoosh. You waited just a bit longer and your patience was rewarded as he said, “This is probably not the time to bring this up . . . but it’s not something I can ignore much longer. I need at least a couple of answers.”

“About?” You prompted.

Seven’s hand reached for yours, and you gladly took it. He linked your fingers together and squeezed them. “You said this is a video game.”

“Seven, no! I thought-”

“Please wait.” Seven interrupted you. “Just . . . just let me talk for a moment. Please.” You really didn’t want to discuss this right now. But his tone of voice convinced you to let him speak. There was a soft desperation there. You weren’t cruel enough to leave him alone with such thoughts.

“. . . Okay.” You murmured and waited.

He took a breath to start again. “You said this is a video game to you . . . and now that you’ve pointed it out I can kind of see how. This all has to seem like one of those TV dramas to you, right?”

“It definitely has similarities like Zen pointed out in the chatroom, but this is too real.” You said neutrally. You would keep reminding him that this was real life to him. You didn’t want him to think everything was pointless.

Seven didn’t seem too concerned, however. “Is this game a mystery game?” He asked curiously. You gave him a surprised look, eyebrows raised. He was actually interested in what the game was?

“No.” You shook your head.

“Then what kind of game is it?”

You flustered at his question. Crap, you had never even considered the fact that he would ask you something like this. It was super embarrassing to admit. “It’s, um.” You dithered, not wanting to answer. Seven waited, fingers squeezing yours to encourage you to answer.

“Come on~” He sang.

You groaned and hid your face behind your free hand. “It’s a dating game.” You muttered.

Seven was quiet for a long moment before shooting you an unreadable look before turning back to the road. You peeked out from between your fingers hating how hot your face felt. “Like . . . those Otome game things?” He asked slowly.

“Yes. But, um, a Korean one.”

Seven’s face twisted some before he sighed with gusto. “So you’re telling me there are multiple versions of me dating different girls?”

“No, um, sort of?” You didn’t know for sure, after all. “I think my scenario is special.”

“Special how?”

“Our worlds take place in the same time. So, like, we don’t have super advanced gaming or anything. Whatever technology is here, we have in my world as well.”

“So you being sucked into a game is completely unheard of?”

“Yes.” You nodded.

“I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or not.” He confessed. “Did you do any kind of research before playing this game? Have you heard of any other cases?”

“No, not at all. If there have been, it hasn’t been on the internet.” Not that you had exactly gone hunting for any kind of information. You hadn’t wanted spoilers. You had learned from your last fandom to go into the game blind. It was more fun that way. Well, look where it had gotten you.

“Hmm . . . that doesn’t really clear anything up for me.” He muttered under his breath to himself. Then, louder, he asked, “Do you have any idea when the game ends?”

“No.” You told him quietly.

“Dating games don’t last long.”

“No.” You repeated, quieter still. His grip on your hand tightened in response to your own instinctive clench of your hand. You looked at him, and he looked at you. There was a sadness in his eyes that you hated to see. You smiled quickly at him, although it didn’t have the same power behind it as it usually did. “Hey, maybe we’ll be lucky and I’m permanently stuck here!”

“Is that what you want, though?” He asked. You frowned.

“What do you mean?”

He murmured your name with almost exasperation. “You have a life in the . . . real world . . . right? Don’t you want to go back? What about your family? And your friends?”

You didn’t want to think about that right then. You wanted to avoid those thoughts for a little while yet. You didn’t want to have to choose right now. You would rather be left without the choice. You would rather just let the game make the decision for you. That way you wouldn’t have to feel guilty about your choice.

“I don’t . . . want to think about that right now.” You confessed to him lowly. “I can think about that later . . . when we’ve rescued Saeran.”

“Will you have time to decide, though?” Seven said quietly, almost to himself but not quite. You didn’t respond. Your heart felt heavy in your chest.


	5. Chapter 4

You were completely correct in your guess that you had gotten involved in something very dangerous. Not that it changed much in your opinion because you were in this for the long haul anyway, but things definitely could go bad any time.

You and Seven arrived at Mint Eye and had attempted to convince Saeran of the truth, but Saeran hadn’t listened and had run off in almost a crazed daze. It had startled you, but you recognized that type of insanity. Either Saeran was truly insane (which you didn’t want to believe for Seven’s sake), or he was on drugs of some sort. Considering the fact that the “religious group” Mint Eye seemed suspiciously like a cult, you were going to guess the latter. Saeran locked you and Seven both in the computer room of Mint Eye, so Seven had set to work trying to get the computerized lock open. You kept in contact with the RFA members in the meantime, reassuring them when you needed to, and listening to them when they reassured you in turn. You wondered to yourself when you had become so emotionally attached to all of characters in this game. They felt like people you had known for months, although you had only known them for a little over a week. You felt the care they held for you, and you responded in turn. You wanted to get out of there and meet them properly.

You had thought that things were bad before when Saeran had run off, but when you and Seven finally escaped you learned from V that Saeran had been taken by Ms. Vanderwood. You had stared at V unable to trust the man, but you felt pity in your heart. You had a feeling deep down that V wasn’t actually a bad man. No matter how much the evidence pointed towards that, and no matter how badly he had betrayed Seven and Saeran (although that infuriated you) you felt that V was a man with a secret too heavy to bear. You could tell he would be a fandom favorite. You wondered what his story was.

You didn’t have time to think on it any longer as you and Seven drove off in pursuit of Vanderwood and Saeran. Seven had cursed and hit his steering wheel furiously, his body shaking. You placed your hand on his arm and squeezed it until he looked at you with desperate eyes. “We’ll find him in time.” You told him seriously. “Remember to keep calm, Luciel.”

“I hate this.” He told you through gritted teeth, one of his hands running into his hair and gripping it. “Everything just keeps going to hell! How do we even know that V was telling the truth? He’s lied to me before.”

“Because it’s the only lead we have.” You said, holding onto his arm as his other hand returned to the steering wheel. “I’m sure we’ll find Saeran.” You smiled and leaned forward so that he could see you more. “All dating games have good ends, after all!”

Seven huffed a disbelieving laugh, but you saw the stress in his face relax a little bit. “Is that where your confidence is coming from? You’re really calm.”

“I’m fucking scared!” You said cheerfully. “But yes, the confidence is here. I won’t let us have a bad end.”

Seven’s hand left the wheel, and your hand slid down the arm to hold his. He squeezed it thankfully, but the frown on his face didn’t leave. “. . . Because you can play the game again, right?” He asked you quietly. “You can erase the file and start over?”

You felt trapped, suddenly. This felt like a trick question. You recalled briefly seeing a couple of pieces of fanart of Seven begging the main character not to reset. It was one of the things that had caught your attention about the game: the sentience that this “707” character seemed to have. At least that was what you had gathered from fanart. Now it just pained you. You didn’t want him thinking that you would just reset on him at any time, although you did have that ability. Your phone in your pocket seemed to burn your skin. You could mentally picture the single reset button that was on the profile screen of your app. You shivered a little at the thought.

“I can . . .” You told him carefully. He deserved the truth, “It’s on my app right now. But I don’t have any plans of using it unless . . . unless we’re particularly desperate.” You stared at him, trying to convey your honesty and earnestness in this matter. “I don’t want to lose what I have right now.” You brought his hand to your mouth and pressed a lingering kiss to it. You wanted to keep this. You didn’t think your heart could bear it if you did manage to start over and none of your friends remembered who you were. Your heart clenched at the very thought. No, you didn’t want to ever use that button unless absolutely desperate. If you were able to stay in the game world, then you hoped that Seven would somehow be able to remove that feature on the app of your phone. You didn’t want to accidentally press it one day.

Seven released your hand and returned it back to the steering wheel. He didn’t respond, but you could see the wetness in his eyes. He blinked them and shook his head quickly. You saw some kind of shaky resolve settle over him. “Good to know.” He told you, and then cleared his throat of the roughness that was there. “If things go . . . sideways . . . be sure to use it. Okay?”

You didn’t agree to that at all. You didn’t want things to go sideways. The very thought scared you. Images of watching Seven die in various ways filled your mind unbiddenly. You hated your mind sometimes and how graphic it could be with so little prompting. You clenched your eyes shut and took a breath. “ _If_ things go sideways.” You responded noncommitting. You wondered if you would prefer to die rather than Seven. But the logical part of you told you that you had to live so you could reset.

You didn’t like this game very much right now.

Later on, it became very apparent that neither of you were going to make it to the RFA party. You needed to find Saeran, and so you had to skip the party. There was some regret on your part considering you had been excited for it. You had worked so hard to get the guests and to finally meet your friends face-to-face, but you were able to push past it and focus on helping Luciel. Or, rather, Saeyoung. The man you loved confessed his true name to not only you, but the rest of the RFA as he discarded his baptismal name as well as his agent name. You found that this name suited him better, although he had teased you a bit as you tried to adjust your tongue to pronouncing it. You weren’t quite yet used to all of the Korean pronunciations.

The longer you lingered in the game world with Saeyoung, the less you wanted to return to your own. You didn’t know if it was just passion and such a feeling would mellow out with time (this really was such a whirlwind romance if you really sat down to think about it), but you loved being swept along in it. You spent the evenings curled up in Saeyoung’s arms for both warmth and pleasure. You finally were able to kiss him freely, and you allowed him to completely possess you. You couldn’t bring yourself to regret giving yourself to him, although the sillier part of you had you giggling about it afterwards.

“What are you laughing about?” Saeyoung asked you as his hand skimmed up over your bare hip and ribs, scooting closer to your heat. It was a little too warm for you considering you were still trying to cool down after your activities, but you didn’t really want to pull away from him. He looked the most relaxed he had been since . . . well, ever. You wanted him to stay this relaxed forever so that he would never be stressed out.

“It’s stupid.” You giggled more, unable to stop the giddiness, “But I was just thinking that _so_ many girls would be jealous of me right now.”

“Possessive?” Saeyoung teased you, his toe poking your foot repeatedly.

“I’m talking about the fangirls.” You said, fingers tapping on his chest as you curled up a little bit more to escape his feet. “It’s not every day someone has sex with a video game character.” Ah, wait. Maybe that wasn’t good of you to bring up. You should really watch your mouth more.

“That’s true.” He responded, rolling onto his back to stare at the ceiling and yawn. He didn’t seem overly bothered by your comment. Had he somehow dodged the existential crisis? “There’s a couple of characters I wouldn’t mind sharing a bed with. Can you imagine that? Game-ception! Video games in video games in video games!”

“We have to go deeper.” You joked, deepening your voice. He laughed, and you were glad he got your reference. He sat up and reluctantly slid out of bed.

“Come on. We need to shower. We won’t have time in the morning.”

“Only if you join me.” You bargained, eyes trailing down his body to take in the sights. You were still mildly embarrassed, but you didn’t let the sensation overwhelm you. He winked and kissed in your direction before dancing into the bathroom. He sing-songed your name as you heard the water start, and it was enough to pull you from the bed to follow after him. You had missed playful seven-zero-seven.

It was a small reprieve for the both of you as things steadily got worse. You managed to pull off the trick of rescuing Saeran and convincing Vanderwood to side with you to escape death. However, Saeyoung was injured in the process, and Saeran showed no sign of trusting his brother (which probably hurt Saeyoung worse than his bleeding arm). As soon as he could, Saeran betrayed all of you and summoned Mint Eye to capture you. The fear that maybe you truly were headed for a bad ending ripped through you as you were carted back to Mint Eye’s headquarters. That thought left your mind as you saw a woman you had only seen through pictures. Rika was supposed to be dead, but she wasn’t. After seeing the way she acted and treated people she was supposed to care for, you kind of wished that she had died instead. This was a twist that, while you may have enjoyed it in a game, you hated to experience it in person. The pain on Saeyoung’s face, as well as V’s face, was not worth the plot twist.

Rika planned to make all of you join Mint Eye -most likely through some sort of brainwashing judging by how her cult members acted- but none of you wanted to. V proved your intuition correct by providing Saeyoung with a cell phone to contact Jumin, but Saeyoung had still rebelled against him. You had to grab him back as he beat V, expressing his anger physically even as he cried furious and betrayed tears. He managed only a couple of hits in before succumbing to your hold. You trembled as you held him around his waist and he contacted Jumin to come rescue you all. It would take time though. You felt as if there was a clock counting down over your head.

Rika may have planned to force you all to join Mint Eye, but Saeran certainly hadn’t been aware. His insanity took hold of him in a dreadful way, and it ended in casualty. Rika’s scream echoed in your mind as V died, shot by Saeran after Saeyoung had passed out trying to protect him. Jumin’s security force arrived just in time to start the arrests. You had stared at the tall man, tears falling from your cheeks as you tried not to stare at the body in the room. You lost sight of Saeyoung and Saeran in the chaos. You didn’t know if you should call out to Jumin, but you also knew he wouldn’t recognize you. He had no idea what you looked like.

“Jumin.” You called with a weak voice. The man didn’t hear you at first, but he noticed your movement towards him. He helped you to your feet when you reached for him.

“Oh.” He breathed in realization. “It’s you.”

“I’m so sorry.” You whispered. “Jumin, I-”

“You don’t have a reason to apologize.” Jumin cut you off with his usual curtness. You noticed that he was firmly not looking towards where V was. You were breathless with your own horror. You idly wondered if you were going into shock. You didn’t feel like you were thinking or breathing at all. “I wish we could have met under better circumstances. Come, we have to leave here.”

“But what about Saeyoung? He collapsed . . .”

“My men will take him to the hospital immediately. We’ll meet them there.” He pulled you along after him, and you stumbled to follow. A sob built in your chest, but you could only stare wide-eyed at everything happening around you. A man was dead, Saeyoung was unconscious (possibly dying of blood loss?), Saeran was insane, and Rika . . . you had no idea what had happened to her.

What the fuck kind of game was this?

You suddenly very much wanted to go home.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that I haven't been posting pretty much at all for my stories. I went on a little hiatus for personal reasons, and then immediately afterwards my muse refused to work for me at all. I'm still kind of in a slump. I will attempt to work on Memories of a Family next. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy my other stories!

You couldn’t be anything but shaken up by the events that had occurred. In retrospect (when you’d had time to process and really think things over) this was such a drama thing to do: the brainwashed “evil” twin brother, the cult, the plot twist, the death of a beloved -if absent- character . . . You never thought that you would ever experience something like that in real life. And you hated it. You had always enjoyed watching that kind of angst on television or in other forms of media, but to actually experience it? It was a bitch. Especially so when you had to watch the repercussions of everything.

Saeyoung had been in the hospital bed awake when you came to see him. Other than being a little pale and exhausted, he appeared fine. Some kind of tension and fear in your heart that you hadn’t realized had taken hold of you unclenched. You had teared up as you approached him and threw your arms around his shoulders. He hugged you the best he could with his IV still in place and his hug wasn’t any weaker for it.

“You’re alright!” He breathed, eyes relieved as he gazed at you.

“Of course I’m alright! I’m not hurt at all. _You’re_ the one who’s in the hospital bed!” You scolded, smiling as you wiped away a couple of tears. You sniffled once and leaned back down to kiss him, lips trembling against his. He sighed, and it sounded like he was also releasing some type of weight. You wondered what he had been worried about to elicit such a response. You pulled the nearby chair over before sitting down and resting your forehead against his arm. “I’m so glad you’re okay . . .” You told him.

“I can definitely tell you that I feel the same.” He joked, and you lifted your head to meet his eyes. His hand came up to cup your cheek and brush away a tear making you blush in the process. It was such an intimate gesture. You still weren’t quite used to this kind of feeling despite everything. “I’m also really glad you’re here.”

“Oh yeah? What for?” You asked, surprised. Saeyoung only blinked once at you, clearly waiting, and then the pieces fell into place. “Oh.” You breathed, shocked. You hadn’t even considered what he was implying. Your hands came up to hold his hand in yours as you stared at him with a mixture of fear and relief brewing in your chest. “I’m still here.”

“That’s okay, right? You’re okay?” He asked, eyes scanning your face for a reaction. You didn’t know how you were feeling at that moment. The climax of the story was clearly over. Shouldn’t the game have ended by now? And if so, shouldn’t you have been sent home? And if you weren’t being sent home . . . did that mean you weren’t going home?

Your breath shuddered out of you, and immediately you rejected the idea of dealing with this right now. You were sure you were going to have a bad time if you tried to consider this new existence on top of everything that had happened to you. You shook your head very quickly and clutched Saeyoung’s hand tighter in yours. If you were hurting him, he didn’t show it.

“I don’t know.” You finally responded somewhat shakily. “I’ll, uh . . . I’ll think about that later, haha.” You laughed awkwardly and rubbed at your neck. You refused to think about those things right now.

“Okay.” Saeyoung said seriously before he smiled ruefully. “I know that feeling.” You huffed a more sincere laugh this time.

“I bet you do! Did you even find time to, uh, think of the implications . . . ?” You asked him hesitantly.

“I lost even more sleep over it, but I eventually just kind of got used to it.” Saeyoung’s red hair splayed against his pillow as he tilted it this way and that in thought. “My life’s a video game! Millions are probably cyber-dating millions of versions of me! Wow! Crazy!” He splayed his hands dramatically before dropping them back down. “This is a story some people probably wrote out. Maybe they’ve even written out this part?” He sighed gustily, bluster leaving him. “Whatever. Whatever! That’s my life apparently.”

“I’m sorry.” You told him meekly, feeling partially to blame. This was your game, after all.

“It’s insane as all hell but . . . I got to meet you. And no matter if this is a story somebody wrote, at least it has a somewhat happy ending.” There was a reluctant acceptance about him. It was better than the state you were in, anyway.

“Only somewhat?” You asked, thinking of V and Rika.

Saeyoung’s eyes dropped to his blanket-covered body and then over to his IV before looking at you again. “Only somewhat.” He confirmed quietly.

You learned why that was ‘only somewhat’ later. Saeran wasn’t in the best of places emotionally or mentally. You didn’t get to see the man himself, and usually you only heard some updates from Jaehee and Jumin. You didn’t even get to talk to Saeyoung a whole lot after he had been released from the hospital. He spent whatever time he could with Saeran, but he also had to deal with the information leak that Saeran had committed on Saeyoung’s organization. It was a problem out of the way, but Saeyoung had to work to cover his own tracks. The secret agency was destroyed with all of its dirty secrets exposed to the public. It was a shock to the world. You were, for the most part, unaffected. It did make you wonder how many of those secrets could be real in your own world. No matter how knock-off some of the names were in the game, they were still based on real people. You supposed you would have to leave that kind of questioning to yourself. It didn’t look like you were going to find out anytime soon.

Which led you to the thoughts of going home. Life kept moving forward in the video game. How much of that was free will, and how much of that was the game’s storyline? You wished that you had done some more research. Maybe you could’ve somehow gotten a better ending if you had known what the endings to the games actually were. Maybe you could’ve saved V’s life. Maybe you could’ve altered things for the better? The what-ifs were what got to you. Without the push of the plotline behind you, you had far too much time to think.

You still lived in Rika’s apartment because you had nowhere else to go. Saeyoung came to visit along with Jaehee as the two of them tried to figure out what to do with the place. It had been owned by V, after all, and with the man now gone it was up for grabs. You didn’t know where that would leave you. You didn’t have the courage to ask Saeyoung if you could move in with him. You thought it was a pretty big step for a relationship that wasn’t all that old. Saeyoung didn’t offer it either. Instead he decided to buy Rika’s apartment. It was only then that you had the courage to really ask him anything.

“Can I . . . still stay here?” You asked him quietly as Jaehee and a visiting Vanderwood wandered into the bedroom to look around. You gripped the edge of Saeyoung’s shirt as you waited for his reply.

“Yeah, of course.” He responded easily, sounding a little surprised that you were even asking. “If you want to stay here as long as you want, then you can.”

Relief suffused through you. “Thank you.”

He cleared his throat, hand dropping to touch yours. You took it gladly, although you held his hand behind his back so the others wouldn’t be able to see it easily. “Just, uh, l-let me know if you get other ideas. For where to live, I mean.”

That could mean many things, you thought. If you weren’t being too ridiculous . . . was he offering you something that he wasn’t actually saying? You leaned forward to catch a glimpse at his face and smiled. “Okay.”

After that, you had time on your hands again. In the meantime, you decided to properly meet your friends finally. Yoosung was first considering he was on break from school to care for Rika. You pitied the woman even though you didn’t particularly like her. You knew that she had probably been a wonderful woman in the past, but now it just didn’t really matter. You had only seen one side of her. You were quietly glad you would never get to see it again. You had all decided to not tell Zen and Yoosung of what had really gone down at Mint Eye. It was for the best, although the lie sat uncomfortably in your chest.

Despite being distracted by his cousin, Yoosung had been thrilled to meet you. He really was as adorable in real life as he was over the chatroom. He was cheerful and energetic, as well as optimistic for Rika’s condition. You had spent some time with him at the apartment he was staying at with Rika chatting with him for a long time until it was time for you to return back to your own place. It seemed that your friends became a bit anxious if you hung out with a guy alone. You didn’t really understand it because it wasn’t really _that_ late, but you supposed that maybe it was a cultural thing? You weren’t sure. You were sad to part, but you messaged him over the app.

You had lost your ability to communicate within the chatroom, which only further solidified your thoughts that the game was officially over and that you were not going to be returning home. Your app refused to show that there were any more chatrooms past the last one you had been part of although everyone who called or messaged you told you that chats were still occurring. It was very frustrating. Saeyoung had to cover for you saying that perhaps it was just a glitch and that he would work on it when he could. You weren’t sure he could really do anything, though. At least every now and again your app would randomly launch you into the chatroom, but you couldn’t respond to anyone in it. It was better than nothing, you supposed. At least you could still call and message them.

You met Zen the next day in a park that he had recommended. You felt your stomach swoop at the sight of him. Jaehee had not been exaggerating about his beauty. And you suddenly were less annoyed by Zen’s narcissism. He deserved to be narcissistic, you thought, with how drop-dead _gorgeous_ he was. You had seen the selfies he had posted on the chatroom, but it was nothing to the real thing. It was very possible that Zen had just gotten a brand-new fan, and you told him so as soon as he realized you were you.

Zen had flushed and preened under your praise. “I’m always happy to get a new fan! Especially if it’s you!”

“I’ll need to take Jaehee up on her offer to go watch one of your shows with her.” You told him, admittedly flustered to be in his presence. You weren’t actually all that used to having so many male friends, let alone attractive ones. You were starting to realize, having met everyone in the RFA now, that you probably could’ve been happy with any of them. They were all wonderful in their own ways. Even Jaehee stirred your heart a little bit, peaking your interest. You didn’t know if the woman was interested in other women . . . and you weren’t even sure yourself if you were interested in women, but damn if you wouldn’t have given Jaehee a chance!

But then you found yourself telling Zen about your time with Saeyoung and some of the silly things you two had done together in your downtime, and your heart would swell with joy. You knew then that whatever feelings you could’ve possibly developed for any of the RFA members paled in comparison for the love you already had for Saeyoung. You weren’t sure if you would consider calling your feelings for your friends ‘crushes’, but you knew for sure they weren’t anything compared to what was already in you. Saeyoung, the sneaky bastard, had already captured you completely.

“Sneaky!” You scolded him that night once you had returned home from your day out with Zen and had called your boyfriend. “You’re so sneaky!”

“I know~” Saeyoung teased. You could hear traffic in the background. He must be outside, you realized. Maybe going to visit Saeran? Or maybe to go home? “But what about this time?”

“You’ve completely stolen my heart! Sneaky!!” You accused.

You heard Saeyoung make a noise that you could only classify as a splutter before he fell silent briefly. Then he whined loudly, “Y-You! You can’t just say things like thaaat! I wasn’t prepared at all!”

Oh God, he was so adorable!! You buried your face into your pillow and made a high-pitched whining noise yourself. You two were such a mess for each other. “Too bad!” You told him. “Revenge!”

“. . . It’s the same for me too, you know.” He muttered, embarrassed. Your face flushed in response. The reassurance of his feelings felt wonderful, even if it stole the breath from your chest and made you want to hug him. You hugged your pillow instead. You were in trouble, that was for sure. He cleared his throat before you could think of a response, signifying that he was going to change the topic. You lifted your head from your pillow so that the cooler air could hopefully help you cool off your heated cheeks. “Listen . . . I’m . . . probably not gonna be available for a little while. Or at least, not as often as I had been on the chatroom.”

“Why?” You asked. It wasn’t like you could visit the chatrooms anyway, but that was a curious thing to say.

Saeyoung didn’t respond for a moment, but you could tell he was figuring out how he wanted to word things. “I can’t tell you yet, but let’s just say that Jaehee and Jumin won’t be too happy. It’s to help my brother, though.”

You sat up, surprised. Saeyoung did a lot to annoy the two more serious members of the RFA, but it was strange that he was hiding it from you as well. “Is he doing alright?”

“No. Uh . . . not really.” Saeyoung sounded so tired then. You had seen how stressed out he had been before, but you knew this had to be harder on him than he was willing to show everyone. You wished that you could be by his side more to help him out. It didn’t feel right for you to visit Saeran, though, and Saeyoung was still busy with trying to deal with the exposure of the secret agency. You didn’t have much of a place in his life at the moment as much as that hurt you. He sighed. “The doctors are planning to move Saeran to a psychiatric unit.”

“Oh God.” You breathed.

“I won’t be able to see him if they do . . . o-or, I don’t think so. I just know he can’t go there. He already hates what they’re putting him through; I can’t let him suffer more than he has to. So I gotta do something.”

It sounded to you that Saeyoung was going to do something a little desperate. You nodded despite him not being able to see you. “Okay. Good luck, Saeyoung. Call me when you can, please? Just to let me know you’re both alright.”

There was a smile in his voice as he said softly with relief, “Yeah. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Mwah!” You added, getting him to laugh a little bit before he returned the gesture and rung off with you. You placed your phone aside and stared at it for a little while. You really hoped that nothing would go wrong. You still weren’t positive that this was the “true end” of the game. Or, at least, for Seven’s route. You prayed that it was.


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's been over a month since I've updated this. Apologies. School and work keep me busy for most of the week to the point where I'm too drained to write even when I want to. Hopefully I can slip it in a bit more. Tentatively.
> 
> Anyway, this chapter marks the beginning of me slowing down some. I still don't know how long this story will be. Probably not nearly as long as most of my stories.
> 
> I was gonna bring the plot in one direction originally, but another idea became more appealing so l will be doing that one. They're not too different from each other. I hope you enjoy anyway!
> 
> This chapter was also supposed to go one way and then ended up with a LOT of MC/7 flirting. Whoops. I blame the Valentine's Day DLC.
> 
> Lastly if you're a relatively avid fan of my other MM stories you'll notice that pretty much all of my MCs are different from each other. Some subtlety and others more obviously (due to plot reasons). This particular MC will have a lot more of her past laid out for the reader due to the nature of the story. She's supposed to feel distinctly different from other MCs because she's not SUPPOSED to be exactly like the game's MC. I hope she feels more relatable, or at least relatable in general. She very much has her own personality. I hope it portrays well.

For a long while, you were left alone to your own devices. There was not much that you could do considering that you were no longer the focus of the game anymore. Saeyoung was busy with his brother, Jaehee and Jumin had their work plus the case to deal with, and Yoosung had Rika. Even Zen -although freer than the others- was busy with trying to get new roles to play. You didn’t have the heart nor the selfishness to try to take up his time no matter how delighted he was to talk to you. Still he was the one you ended up communicating with the most throughout the day. He didn’t miss your phone calls if he could help it.

 

“Ah, I have to go already.” He would tell you, and you would feel a bit of disappointment as you stood outside of Rika’s old apartment and stared at the cityscape before you. “I need to get some exercise in before a prospective director calls me.”

 

“It’s okay!” You would assure him. There was a chill on the wind as your hair was blown back from your face. It felt good as it cooled you off even though your shivered a bit. “I hope you get the part!”

 

“With you cheering for me, I don’t doubt I will!” He chuckled some.

 

“Also . . .” You added with some hesitance, “thank you for talking to me so much. I know you’re busy . . .”

 

“What? I love talking to you!” He sighed longingly. “I only wish Saeyoung would fix your phone app, though, so you can chat with all of us in the chatroom. Not that much chatting is happening with everyone so busy, though. What is that boy up to, anyway . . . ?” You weren’t sure if Zen was directing that question at you or not. You also didn’t think that Saeyoung had informed anybody of what he had done. Well you weren’t going to be the one to expose his secret!

 

Your heart warmed at his words and you pressed a hand to your burning cheeks. “Thank you, Zen.”

 

“Anytime, babe. Good night and sleep well! You can always dream of me to make you smile!” You giggled and Zen hung up. You dropped your hand and continued to stare out over the city. You idly watched a couple of cars driving by and felt the world yawning around you. You felt suddenly very out of place in this world, although the feeling was becoming familiar. Loneliness rapidly seeped into your heart. You missed having Saeyoung inside of your house. You had grown used to his presence. You wondered if he would mind if you called him?

 

This situation was becoming very familiar to you. You knew you didn’t exactly fit in in this world. You occasionally had felt this disconnect with your own world as well. It was a strange feeling being buoyant and unattached. You weren’t used to living alone. You still lived in your family’s household in your world. Despite being in the city, it was so quiet.

 

You reentered your apartment and gazed around you. The place wasn’t much different since Saeyoung had taken it over, however certain items had been removed. It was still one of the safest places for the RFA information considering nobody but the RFA knew the location of it, so Jumin had decided that for the time being the information would be left there while they prioritized other things. The bomb had been removed long ago as soon as Saeyoung had been able to spare the time. However, he had still left the cameras up.

 

You waved at the camera and smiled even though you weren’t sure if your boyfriend was looking at you through it. You were certain that he was probably busy, but just in case he wasn’t and he was, in fact, checking up on you then you wanted to be sure to be friendly. You felt your smile turn slightly wistful at the thought and you resisted the sigh that built in your throat. You wished that Saeyoung was there with you. You missed being around him. You two didn’t get long to actually be a couple together, and even the short time you had been together hadn’t exactly been about the romance. There was no “honeymoon” period for you yet. You weren’t so sure you would receive one anytime soon.

 

You drifted over to your couch and sat down, your hand idly rolling your phone around and around in it. The silence was yawning around you even as the distant sounds of the city seeped into the house. You didn’t have a television here because this wasn’t really a place anyone had lived. It was more of a place where someone had stayed overnight at on occasion. You were lucky to have a bed and a couch. Food sounded appealing to you, but you resisted knowing that it was just you wanting to have something to distract yourself. You laid down on the couch and continued to stare at the wall while you computer tempted you to get on it. You supposed that now was as good of a time as ever to let your thoughts finally overwhelm you. They had been patient enough, and you were in just right mood to wreck yourself emotionally. 

 

Was this your future now, you wondered? The game must be over by this point. You were no longer getting new chatrooms, the plot appeared to be over, and you were still dating Saeyoung. What was left in a dating sim to do? You supposed that now you just had to live. That in and of itself was exciting in a way. You had always wanted to travel, but never could. Now you were living in an entirely different country, had money, a home, friends, and a lover. Considering it had been maybe a month and a half since you had entered the game you weren’t doing too bad for yourself.

 

The problem was that you hadn’t had the choice. You loathed that feeling of regret and anger. You hadn’t known what you were signing up for. You hadn’t gotten the chance to tell your friends or family where you had been going. You hadn’t been able to say goodbye. You hadn’t known that this was permanent. You had been busy most of the time you had been in this world, but what about your world? Was time still continuing? Was it faster? Slower? What would you family think? You would’ve just randomly disappeared. They would have no idea what had happened to you.

 

You teared up against your will. Your relationship with your family wasn’t the best, but you would’ve liked to have at least said goodbye. You missed your brother. You missed your friends. You missed your cats. God, you really missed your cats. Your friends were the only ones aware that you had been about to play Mystic Messenger, however there was no possible way they knew you would get sucked in. You wished that you could tell them about the insanity that had happened to you.

 

What was the chance that when you were seemingly electrocuted by your phone, you had only been knocked out? You began to giggle to yourself a bit, amused by the stray thought. It was impossible. Impossible!

 

Your phone rang and, giggling, you answered it with a brief glance at the screen. You knew that ringtone and a limited number of people had your actual phone number. “Hello?” 

 

“Ooh, what are you laughing about?” Saeyoung asked in lieu of a greeting. His voice sounded strangely scratchy. He coughed once. You wondered if he was becoming sick. 

 

“I was thinking about depressing things and my mind supplied me a possible answer that was just a little too ridiculous and now I’m laughing out of nervousness.” You confessed to him in a bit of a blabber. For a second he didn’t respond and your giggle petered out as you became self-conscious of your words. 

 

Then he responded, “What depressing things? And what was the thought?” He sounded tired, you thought. Not nearly as sad as the last time you had spoken to him, but tired nonetheless. You weren’t sure if it was an improvement. You didn’t know whether you actually wanted to tell him what you had been thinking about. Your cheeks were still a bit wet from crying some. You wiped at them to get the water off.

 

“Just . . . the situation.” You responded lamely. You sighed at yourself. What a coward. Saeyoung called your name, firm but coaxing. You ran a hand over your face and rubbed at your eyes with your fingers.

 

“I saw that.” 

 

You jumped and your eyes immediately jumped to the camera, narrowing at it. You heard Saeyoung’s soft huff of air, amused. “Saeyoung,” You whispered, covering the mouthpiece of your cell phone and turning slightly away from the camera, “I think a creeper is watching me.”

 

“That’s no good at all! Give me a moment, I’ll zoom in and see if I can find them!” You bit your lip to try to keep the smile out of your voice as Saeyoung hummed while he worked. You could practically feel the camera zooming in on you. You gave him no opportunity to see anything but a curled up form of you, even going so far as to hide your face. “Nope!” He concluded. “I only see a cute lady talking on her phone with her master hacker boyfriend~”

 

“Oh jeez, who let them in here?” You cried.

 

“Probably the same cute lady who won’t tell me what she was crying about.” 

 

You jutted your lip out in defeat before quickly dropping it and sighing. “I was thinking about the fact that I’m not going home.” You finally told him with only some reluctance. “And how I feel about it.”

 

“Ah.” Saeyoung hummed again lowly in understanding. You swallowed. His voice was softer as he asked, “And how do you feel about it?”

 

“I don’t know.” You murmured, uncurling from your ball to lay more on your back and stare at the camera. You shifted down your loose shorts to cover yourself a bit more. Your arms ached to hug something, but you were too lazy to go get a pillow of some sort. You were more craving Saeyoung’s company. The loneliness in you -held at bay while talking to someone- pressed more against your mind and made your chest feel tighter. You resisted the urge to cry again. It was stupid. “I’m sad. And angry. I . . .” You weren’t sure how to voice your emotions. If you tried, you were sure you would just babble. As it was, you could only let out a groan and press your hand to your eyes again. “I don’t know. I wish I could’ve had a choice in the matter, you know?”

 

“I do.” Saeyoung agreed. “You should’ve gotten a choice.” He paused. “Do you suppose that you’re staying, then?” You could tell he was trying to hide the hope in his voice. You could hear the sadness that lingered in it. The pity for you. The upset. You appreciated it.

 

“It seems like the game is over. I can’t think of anything else that should occur.” You paused now, remembering something. “Unless there’s an after story.”

 

“After story?”

 

“Like a time skip? Some games have that, after all.”

 

“Hmm, I doubt that will happen here. If time does skip forward, though, let me know.”

 

You laughed. “I don’t think that will happen.”

 

“So why were you laughing? None of this sounds funny to me.”

 

“Oh. I was laughing because what if I’m actually in a coma because I was electrocuted by my phone?” Saying that out loud actually sounds a lot more morbid than you had expected.

 

“Phones don’t hold a charge large enough, I think.”

 

“Hence the laughter.” You joked. Your boyfriend huffed a laugh, but it was halfhearted. Saeyoung sounded like he might be a little too tired to joke. You could admit quietly to yourself that you lamented the playful man you had met at the beginning of the game. You wondered if that part of Saeyoung would become more prominent when you weren’t both under stress. It would be nice. You saw him once in a while, but ever since dealing with Saeran he had become quieter. You wouldn’t hold it against him. 

 

“How is your brother?” You asked when the silence went on long enough that you could change the subject. You didn’t feel completely comfortable talking about your emotions with Saeyoung when it came to the situation. You didn’t want him to think you were choosing one life over the other. 

 

“He’s . . .” There was a sudden heaviness to his voice. It had you sitting up.

 

“Saeyoung?” 

 

“We’re better.” Saeyoung hurried to reassure, but it was muffled like he had his face half-covered. Did he bury his face somewhere? You wished that you could see him. “But not before . . .  _ God _ .” His voice broke, and for a second you thought he would cry. Your free hand clenched into the cloth of your shirt, aching to be with him. “I was almost too late . . . but we’re okay now. We’ll get better.”

 

“Saeyoung.” You tried again.

 

“I’ll explain it another time. In person.” He promised. He cleared his throat again. He still sounded ragged. You had a terrible suspicion that it wasn’t actually sickness like you had previously thought. “I wanted to call to say good night to you.” 

 

“Thank you,” you responded reflexively before demanding, “When can I see you again?”

 

He chuckled. “Missing me?”

 

“Always.” Your cheeks immediately began to heat in embarrassment at your quick response. Your honesty flustered you sometimes. Saeyoung hadn’t managed to escape unscathed either judging by the pleased but bashful smile in his voice as he responded,

 

“Jeez, don’t say cute things like that and get all red by yourself!” He sighed longingly. “It makes me want to kiss you.” You could  _ feel _ him watching you, which only made you flail some. You had to hide your face, so you jumped over the couch and hid out of his sight. He cried out at that. “Noo! Why are you hiding? I want to see you!”

 

“Then come visit me and stop saying stuff that makes me flustered!” You yelped back before lowering your voice quickly. You hid your face in your curled knees. “I can’t handle that kind of stuff . . .”

 

“You were dishing it out just fine before~” He teased.

 

“That’s because you were the target.” You pouted at your own legs. Your cheeks still felt hot. You were still surprised at how bold you could be in his presence. 

 

“Come out of hiding.” He murmured, his tone of voice changing.

 

“I’m not wearing much.” You pointed out. “What happened to the man who got all embarrassed because my skirt was a little short? Or my stomach was showing?”

 

“Ah, he’s still here. But you’ve also pulled out another part of me a long while ago.”

 

You felt your heavy eyelids close as your mind easily conjured up the sensations of Saeyoung’s hot breath on your chest. The sound of his voice as he moved in you, darker and laden with arousal and love. His words of longing of things he wished he still had time to do with you back when neither of you were sure you would survive the next day or if you would disappear. 

 

Your breath stuttered in your chest as you tried to inhale deeply. “Unfair.” You whispered.

 

Saeyoung laughed in response, but it was breathier too. You wondered if he had pictured the same as you. Maybe you weren’t  _ just _ wishing he was there with you. Would it be too late to go to his house . . . ? “I win this round~” He teased again, the lilt in his voice sending shivers through you. However your competitive side was rearing its head as well. 

 

Determined, you stood up and crawled back up onto the couch and over the arm of it. You knew your sleeping clothes were both loose (you preferred them that way), so you didn’t doubt the camera had  _ quite _ the angle down your shirt as you crawled towards it. You heard Saeyoung stutter your name, shocked. You laughed yourself feeling as if you had gained the upper hand. “Is that so, honey?” You pressed yourself to the edge of the couch not caring that you were practically falling out of the top of your shirt. “It sounds more like I’ve won~”

 

“You-You-!” He cried, and then had to cough some as his throat bothered him. You felt a little bad about that. “D-Don’t do things like that! This is a PG-13 game!! There may be kids watching!”

 

You grinned, unable to keep up the sexy facade when he was floundering like that. He was adorable. You loved him so much. “Okay, okay.” You agreed and tugged your shirt up more. You were still feeling frisky, but you were much preferring messing with him more than anything else. “You need to sleep anyway. You sounds tired.”

 

Saeyoung let out a sigh of relief. You wondered to yourself if he’d had any kind of reaction to your playful little stunt. God, where did this beast inside you come from? Zen always spoke like all men were beasts, but you were positive women also possessed their own beasts. You were both unnerved and fascinated with your suddenly  _ very _ interested libido. 

 

“You’re going to kill me with stunts like that.” He muttered. You pretended that you didn’t hear that. “But . . . yeah, you’re right about sleeping. I hope I can. I probably won’t.”

 

“Because of me?” You flirted, unable to help it.

 

“Well  _ now _ yes. But mostly no.” He was still being dodgy in his answer. It must have been what had happened with his brother early. That was more worrisome. Did Saeyoung feel like he couldn’t sleep because of Saeran? You wanted to know what had happened, but you had agreed to wait to discuss it in person.

 

“Okay. Please try to get some rest. I’m glad things are getting better with Saeran.”

 

“Me too.” He confessed, sounding slightly cheered up. His exhaustion was really starting to show now. 

 

“Good night, Saeyoung. Oh! Wait!” 

 

“Yes?”

 

You smirked at the camera. “Since we’re dating now, are you sure you don’t want a sexy show~?”

 

“Good night!!” He cried. You laughed as you both hung up. Revenge was so sweet, you thought. You waved to the camera and blew a kiss at it before retreating to your room. The lights were turned off and you climbed into your large bed before curling up in it. You listened to the muffled sounds of the city far below your apartment. You could imagine the sounds of the television at your old house. The sounds of your cats running around the house because they were more active at night. The barking of your dog as he heard something outside. The hum of the fan in your bedroom.

  
You understood viscerally why Saeyoung craved to have a pet. He at least had his brother now. This place was so quiet and empty.


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I made this chapter too long, and now it's split into two! Two updates in one day!

Time passed and things got better. You could only bask in the cold as it reached the city even as you shivered in its embrace. You certainly weren’t used to the cold, but you relished it anyway considering you hated the heat. Everyone was busier as the holidays approached and the city became decorated in familiar colors and symbols. Zen had received a new role that he was complaining about every chance he got considering he would much rather be on a date with a girl than working -which both surprised and didn’t surprise you. Jaehee and Yoosung were given the role of setting up an RFA fundraiser even though it was under C&R’s name. You gladly allowed yourself to be roped into helping them as soon as you could. You needed practice as a coordinator, after all, and it was the first time you were actually going to experience an RFA event. 

 

The closer the holidays became, however, the more you felt sorrow build in you. You found yourself staring outside more at absolutely nothing and tearing up. You didn’t particularly care for Christmas, but it was the first time you weren’t celebrating with your family. You hadn’t seen them in over four months now. In Korea it seemed that Christmas leaned more towards a date day for people your age, though, so you could at least pester Saeyoung to spend time with you and not feel guilty. You had learned quickly that his attention was very much split on that matter.

 

“Will you go Christmas shopping with me?” He had asked in a rush when you arrived at his house. You had barely been able to step through the door before he was saying it. You blinked in surprise.

 

“Yeah, of course.” You responded with confusion.

 

Saeyoung pumped his fist once, excited. “Yes! Okay, let me go get changed and I’ll be right back!” He ran off to his room right away afterwards leaving you standing the living room with company. Your eyes met Saeran’s as the man stood somewhat awkwardly off to the side. His hands were around his cell phone, but he was watching you from underneath his bangs. You hadn’t seen much of Saeran since Saeyoung had brought you back to his house to first reintroduce him. Saeran had changed quite a bit since the horrible drugs that had been in his system had been flushed out. His hair was going back to its natural red color, although it was still white and pink in places. The darkness in and under his eyes lingered, but they were lightening.

 

It was difficult to believe what Saeyoung had told you happened between them, but you had visual proof of it within your memories. Before you hadn’t been able to see Saeyoung at all while he was trying to help Saeran. His twin brother just hadn’t been stable enough to be around other people considering he had attacked doctors and nurses. Saeyoung hadn’t wanted to risk you getting hurt after all that the three of you had been through. Instead Saeyoung had taken the pain unto himself. He had told you that Saeran had tried to kill himself as well as Saeyoung. The next time you had actually seen Saeyoung, you had noticed the fading marks around his neck. He didn’t need to tell you what happened for you to put two and two together.

 

The situation had left you wary of Saeran, but enough time had passed now that you weren’t quite as scared. You hadn’t seen any marks on either of the men, and Saeyoung was actually leaving you alone with Saeran. So that must mean there was a lot of improvement. Besides, you pitied Saeran and wanted to get to know him. He was Saeyoung’s beloved twin brother, after all. You could forgive what Saeran had done considering he had been under the influence of multiple drugs that should’ve killed him. It did make you feel bad realizing you had forgiven a murderer (the image of V being shot and killed in front of you still haunted you on occasion), but you tried not to think about it. Even if logically you felt like you shouldn’t forgive Saeran, your emotions had already long since done so.

 

You pushed the thoughts from your head and pulled yourself back to the present. “He’s excited.” You pointed out cheerfully. Saeran didn’t respond, but you didn’t really take it to heart. “Are you coming with us?” You asked.

 

Saeran’s eyes narrowed a bit in distaste before he nodded. “Yes.” He finally said. His voice was still high and softer than Saeyoung’s. You could see the child that never had the chance to properly grow up in him. You hoped that you could become friends with him. 

 

“You don’t look like you want to.” You teased gently. 

 

“I’m not.” He hesitated before deciding to continue anyway, “A fan of Christmas.”

 

“Ah.” You responded. You understood that. Christmas was hit or miss for you, but this year it was even more so. “So are you being dragged along to go shopping?”

 

Saeran made a movement similar to a shrug, but it was really too half-hearted to even be considered one. You took that as a “kind of” and left it at that. Saeyoung rejoined you both with keys in hand and a coat on. You probably looked like a kid with as many layers that you had on. You liked the cold, but it was nearly freezing out. Maybe there would be snow later? You hoped so. 

 

“Why the last minute Christmas shopping?” You questioned him once the three of you were in one of Saeyoung’s bigger cars. You would’ve taken the backseat so the brothers could take the front, but Saeran had stolen it before you could. Somewhat awkwardly you’d moved up front to Saeyoung amused look. “You seem like the type that would be ecstatic about Christmas. Jesus’s birth and whatnot.”

 

“Ahh . . .” Saeyoung rolled the sound in his mouth turning it into a hum. “Not really. I’ve never liked Christmas.” You shot him a shocked look. He huffed a wry laugh at your face. “This is the first time I can properly celebrate it!”

 

You wondered why and almost opened your mouth to ask, but the epiphany dawned on you faster than your mouth could move. Saeyoung is seeing his brother for the first time in years. With as much that Saeyoung loved his brother, you didn’t doubt that a family holiday such as Christmas wasn’t something he enjoyed. That, and his family growing up wasn’t even a family. You closed your mouth with your question unasked and thought for a moment before declaring, “Then we need a Christmas tree. Hopefully a real one, if possible.”

 

Despite the fact that you had helped set up the RFA event, you once again ended up missing the Christmas event itself. You had only been there for a short hour and a half before Saeyoung had stolen you away for a short impromptu date that involved a walk in a park. Jaehee and Yoosung hadn’t totally appreciated it, but they couldn’t exactly get mad at him for taking you away. They both just seemed relieved that Saeyoung was actually out of his house for Christmas. According to them, he preferred to lock himself away the entire holiday. You could still see it in the way Saeyoung held himself. He was quieter and more serious, not nearly as playful as he usually was with you. It made you hold his hand tighter and learn against him.

 

On Christmas you saw Saeran smile properly for the first time. You truly saw the resemblance between the brothers then. You decided right away that you cared for the other man just like Saeyoung did. You would gladly help protect him.

 

New Year’s Day passed and you adjusted to the fact that you weren’t ever going home. You still counted how long you had been gone, but you stopped expecting to go back to your world. Saeyoung, too, had stopped expecting it. You thought he looked rather happy about this fact, especially as you lay in his bed and watched him change into more comfortable sleep clothing. He was humming to himself a familiar tune that you couldn’t quite place. You felt like you had heard it a long while ago. 

 

“Someone’s cheerful.” You noted to him as you curled yourself more into his pillow. You and Saeyoung had switched the beds between your apartment and his house over the past couple of months so that the bigger bed was at his place. He claimed that it was just easier to have the bigger bed at his house because he wanted one, but you suspected that he was hinting that he wanted you to stay with him more. He certainly never argued when you asked if you could just stay the night. You had found yourself sleeping there more and more. The bed was distinctly more comfortable than Saeyoung’s old twin bed. 

 

“That’s because I made a realization!” Saeyoung announced as he pulled his shirt over his head and hopped onto the mattress. It sent you both bouncing from the movement. He ducked under the comforter and cozied up to you with a bright smile before it softened. The look sent your heart skittering with delight. “It’s our six-month anniversary soon.”

 

“Oh. Yeah.” You responded. You had been vaguely aware of this fact.

 

“Huh? Don’t tell me you forgot.” He pouted. 

 

“Nah, nah, I didn’t! I’ve just been . . .” You trailed off in thought. He blinked at you, waiting. “I guess I’ve been more focused on the fact it’s been half a year since I came here.” You finally admitted. “That’s a long time since I’ve seen my family.” You finished quietly. You couldn’t stop the sadness that slipped into your voice. It was automatic. You had never really been able to hide your emotions well when you were talking about them.

 

Saeyoung didn’t respond for a long moment, his hand instead coming up to hold yours. Your eyes darted to his nervously before back down at your linked hands. You wondered if it was going to become taboo talking about the fact that you both were in a video game. You still didn’t know the extent of how much it bothered him, if at all. Neither of you talked about it very much. The world you were in felt too much like your actual world for you to constantly remember that it was just a game. Long ago it had stopped being “just a game” to you.

 

Finally he responded, “I’m sorry.”

 

“You don’t have to be.” You were quick to reassure him. “I’m excited about our anniversary too! It’s my first.”

 

“Mine too. But you know that.”

 

You giggled. “I do.”

 

Saeyoung watched you silently for a few long heartbeats. This close his golden eyes were even more vibrant. You could see specks of brown within them. You didn’t resist the urge to reach forward and brush his wavy curls back from his temple. Saeyoung took this as an initiative to kiss you softly. You sighed against his lips as you breathed in the scent of his shampoo and body wash. The dry heat of his skin coaxed you to move closer and deeper, but you only did one of those things. His legs tangled with yours and dragged your legs closer until your hips bumped together with his. You shyly ducked your head at that, still not quite used to physical intimacy.

 

“Would you go back if you could?” He asked. You peeked up at him and lifted your head more. You couldn’t read his face, but you felt like he would be disappointed and hurt if you said yes. You didn’t really want to say “yes”, though.

 

“I wish I could visit.” You said instead. “Like, I wish I could have the choice to go visit them. Or at least call. The ‘cutting full communication’ is what bothers me. I mean,” you sighed, “I have friends there too. Friends I’ve known for years and grew up with. To them, what happened to me? I can’t tell them what happened. I can’t see my family, or bring my cats with me. I had to leave everything I knew behind.”

 

He shifted. “So you don’t regret it?”

 

You shifted your legs restlessly and curled your toes against his feet. Your fingers picked at the pillowcase you were laying on. “I don’t.” You admitted. “I’m happy here.”

 

“I’ll make you as happy as you can be.” He promised. “You’ve . . . You’ve made my life so much better by you being here. You brought my brother back to me and helped me start a new life. I want to do the same for you.”

 

You felt your cheeks getting hot. You didn’t feel completely comfortable taking credit for the game’s script. You pointed this out to him.

 

“Don’t be so modest! If you weren’t here, none of this would have happened. It was your words that helped me, not any kind of dialogue the game made up.” He paused. “Unless you were reading a script somewhere?” He added wryly.

 

“I wasn’t.” You laughed. “But . . . I still don’t know how much credit I can take.” Saeyoung clicked his tongue at you. You ignored that, suddenly wondering to yourself. “Actually . . . considering this was a dating sim . . . there were probably bad ends to the game. And if there were bad ends . . .” You didn’t particularly want to consider what kind of endings those could be in such a high-stake plot like the one you had been part of, but your masochistic mind happily supplied you with all kinds of scenarios.

 

“That’s a scary thought.” Saeyoung said, mimicking what you were thinking. He looked disturbed. 

 

“Now I’m curious.” You confessed reluctantly with a groan. “I hate my mind.”

 

“We can easily think of ‘what-if’ scenarios on our own.” Saeyoung pointedly pulled you against him and rolled over you until he was on your other side. It thoroughly distracted you as you laughed. He kissed you a couple of times before he settled, brief playfulness fading as he yawned widely. You could see the bags under his eyes. He had been staying up late on his computer again. You decided it would be better to drop the conversation.

 

Another month passed where you spent more time with your friends. You learned quickly that you wouldn’t be able to see Jaehee or Jumin as much as the others in the group, but they were often enough on the chatrooms. You tended to use Saeyoung’s account when you were at his house because you still couldn’t use your own phone to chat. The others tended to hop online more now if they saw that Saeyoung was online.

 

Saeran received his own account surprisingly late. You hadn’t commented on it to the brothers, but you wondered if it was because Saeran wasn’t ready to interact or be an official member of the RFA. You still had trouble talking to him because he seemed like he never wanted to talk, but he was opening up more. Saeyoung encouraged and harassed him too much not to get reactions out of his twin brother. It was the first time any of the RFA members had had any kind of interaction with Saeran over the messenger, though, because apparently Saeyoung had been busy hacking police files and destroying them. Though the interaction had been short, the RFA seemed at least interested in their newest member.

 

All of this was told to you over the phone by Yoosung, who was curious about what Saeyoung’s brother was like. Saeran and Saeyoung had stayed secretive about their time together over the past couple of months. You were still surprised that the brothers were able to keep so quiet. Yoosung also took the time to tell you that Rika was living somewhere else now. The sadness in his voice was twined together with something you thought sounded almost like happiness. He was probably happy that Rika would be receiving better care even though he wouldn’t get to see her anytime soon.

 

“I’m not bothering you, am I?” He asked you while you tried to fix the skirt of your dress. It was a little more wrinkled than you thought socially suitable. That’s what you got for not hanging up your clothes in time. “You’re getting ready to leave?”

 

“Yeah, how did you know?” You asked, surprised.

 

“A-Ah! I just, haha, I thought you knew.” Yoosung stuttered, and you were immediately suspicious. You waited for him to continue. “We’re all meeting at Seven’s -I mean, Saeyoung’s house, right?”

 

Oh, so it was a group thing. You were excited for that. “Does that mean everyone is going?”

 

“Yes! It’s an RFA meet-up!” Yoosung hurriedly agreed. You were still suspicious, but you weren’t sure why you should be. What was he hiding.

 

“Yes, I’m getting ready for it.”

 

“It’ll be so great to see you again! It’s been so long since we were all together in one place.”

 

“Yeah, I was wondering why Saeyoung suddenly called everyone together. Maybe it’s to celebrate Saeran becoming part of the RFA now?”

 

Yoosung laughed, more giddy than he really should be in the situation you thought. He definitely knew something. “That could be it!”

 

“What do you know?” You demanded, a smile playing on your face.

 

“I don’t know anything! Your guess is as good as mine!” 

 

“Yoosung~”

 

“Anyway, I’ll see you later! I’m gonna catch a quick shower before I leave! Bye!”

  
He hung up before you could get an answer. You could try to bully it out of him later when you were at Saeyoung’s house. For the time being you worked on trying to get the wrinkles out of your new pink dress. You wanted to look cute for everyone when you saw them again.


	9. Chapter 8

“What?” You whispered, shocked as Saeyoung smiled nervously at you. You felt as if your brain may have stopped working because you couldn’t get a single logical thought through your head for the life of you. You could only stare at the ring box in Saeyoung’s hand as he waited for your reply, but you weren’t so sure you would be able to give him one. The possibility of marriage had never entered your mind. You hadn’t considered that maybe your relationship would reach this point. Well, that was a lie. But you hadn’t thought it would reach this point so soon! You had never imagined ever caring about a person enough (or another person caring about you enough) that they would propose to you before you two had even had a one year anniversary. 

 

“You’re so quiet. You’re going to make me nervous.” Saeyoung joked, already looking more nervous by the second. You became aware of the fact that you hadn’t closed your mouth and promptly did so while your eyes darted to his.

 

“Really?” You asked instead, not sure of how you managed to form words at that exact moment. Disbelief was the primary emotion in you right after shock. You had never thought that you would say yes to becoming so serious so soon with someone, but Saeyoung was quickly breaking what few “laws” your mind had formed for you in terms of relationships. You’d had sex with him only a couple days after meeting him. You had fallen fast and hard for him. And now he was proposing to you. If your body and mind were not so strong, you probably would faint. 

 

“Yes, I’m serious.” Saeyoung watched you, his golden eyes taking in everything about you. Oh God, you may need to sit down. 

 

“Oh.” You responded. You wondered if you should tell him to give you a few minutes to think about this kind of thing. It was quite sudden, after all, and nothing like how you would’ve imagined a proposal. Was just because it was Saeyoung, or was it because of a culture thing? There was nothing romantic or extravagant about it. He had simply asked you with a hopeful look in his eyes that made your heart flutter. In a way you kind of liked that more, although the hopeless romantic in you had hoped for more when it came to a proposal. Anything larger, though, probably would have just embarrassed you to all hell. Only having Saeyoung and his brother present helped to relieve you some, even though Saeran seemed to be pretending he wasn’t there. 

 

“Yes.” You blinked in surprise. Oh, your mouth had moved on its own before you had even made a conscious decision. That was weird. Your mind didn’t even have time to contemplate all of the possibilities before you had responded. You wondered if you would regret that.

 

The glow that radiated from Saeyoung’s face as a grin burst upon it was definitely not something you regretted however. “Yes?”

 

“Yes.” You responded again with a nod of affirmation. You still wondered if you should think about it more. Saeyoung only cheered and hopped once before sweeping you up into a hug and twirling you both together. You startled out of your stupor long enough to smile as well, slowly at first and then broadening as Saeyoung thanked you and rambled promises to you. He placed you down long enough to cup your cheeks and kiss you a couple times, placing pecks along your nose and forehead and eyes that made you finally laugh before he kissed you fully on the lips.

 

“I’ll make you happy.” He murmured against your mouth, voice softening to something much more intimate as he calmed down. “I promise to give you the best life I can so you’ll never regret staying with me.”

 

“I don’t think I could ever regret it.” You told him truthfully. You were unable to really imagine a scenario like that even though your traitorous brain was trying to wiggle doubts into your thoughts. You kissed Saeyoung deeply to help snuff out that part, nearly sighing at how tightly he held you while his mouth moved gently against yours. It was enough to make your knees weak as you wrapped your arms around his waist and leaned into him.

 

A throat clearing interrupted you two, and automatically you yanked yourself back. Saeran’s face was the very definition was “unamused and vaguely disgusted” as he stared at you two. Saeyoung, unashamed, only continued to grin while you ducked your head in apology.

 

“Saeran! Can you believe it?” He cried.

 

Saeran only rolled his eyes shortly before looking away. “. . . Idiot.” He grumbled and walked away. Saeyoung whined at his brother’s dismissal.

 

“Where’s my congratulations?” He complained before turning back to you. “It took a while to get his approval, you know.”

 

“Approval?” You asked. “You had to ask him before you could marry me?”

 

“It’s only proper. Also he will probably be living here for a while to come, so I needed to be sure he was okay with getting a new roommate.”

 

“Is it okay if I live here before we’re married?” 

 

“I don’t mind.” Saeyoung admitted, cheeks turning a little pink at the thought. “We’ve already shared houses before for a little while.”

 

“A couple of days with you hiding in the corner doesn’t count.” You poked him in the chest. You weren’t too sure of Korean customs about these kinds of things. You thought it strange that you would be marrying someone before you had lived with them a while. You knew the statistics of marriages where those things occurred. You’d rather make a divorce less likely, even though you two were already engaged.

 

(Oh God, you were  _ engaged! _ )

 

“Oh my God, I’m engaged.” It began to hit you suddenly. The implications of marriage and the fact that you would be binding yourself to this man. A scared part of you wanted more time to think on the matter, but excitement was more prevalent. You grabbed Saeyoung’s shirt nervously. “Are you sure about this?” You asked shakily.

 

“Absolutely.” He responded in all seriousness. His smile was enough to calm you down some as he teased, “If you’re okay with marrying a video game character.”

 

“I’m living the dream.” You laughed, still low-key freaking out but riding the wave of it. You paused at that suddenly aware of something you should’ve considered before. “Saeyoung,” you asked quietly, hands trailing down over his jacket to scratch at the teeth of the zipper in thought, “shouldn’t we tell the others about that? The truth of, well, this?” 

 

Saeyoung sighed and glanced around him. He froze so suddenly that you immediately tensed as well and looked in the same direction only to find mint colored eyes gazing back at the two of you. Saeran at some point had come back and judging by the stare he was shooting straight at his brother, he hadn’t missed what you had said. Man, he was really sneaky.

 

Saeyoung opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. Something passed between the brothers like a conversation had just occurred between them and Saeyoung had caved fairly fast. He frowned and his gaze darted to the side. Saeran waited. You fidgeted with Saeyoung’s jacket zipper and looked between it and the two brothers. You didn’t want to be the first to say something. You were both thoroughly caught.

 

A pounding on the front door broke through the tension as well as what sounded like the faint call of someone. Saeyoung released you. “Ah! The guests are arriving!” He announced, a smile spreading across his face. You stared at him, shocked. He was ignoring what just happened! He rushed to the door to let the guests in. You peeked at Saeran and noticed his frowning face and decided that you couldn’t ignore something like this.

 

“We’ll tell you later.” You promised him, trying to come off as sincere and probably sounding a little too nervous. You didn’t like making promises on other peoples’ behalves, and you didn’t know if Saeyoung actually wanted his brother to know. Well, too late now you supposed. “It’s, um, difficult to explain.”

 

Saeran narrowed his eyes briefly at you before his attention focused in on Yoosung and Zen who had just arrived not long after each other. Saeyoung was already chatting with them, back to his previous state of ecstasy. You only caught him crying, “She said yes!” before Yoosung was cheering and turned to find you. Zen was already giving his congratulations as you were pulled into a hug and swept along as the party officially began.

 

Some last-minute gifts were brought by Yoosung and Zen -who were apparently in on the fact that this was an engagement party- but it still wasn’t too grand. Saeyoung had already ordered some takeout for everyone before Jaehee and Jumin had even arrived, so the food got there first. When your older friends did arrive, they announced that gifts and wine would be delivered soon. Until then everyone had lingered around and chatted with each other and bickered. Now that you thought about it, it was the first time you were seeing everyone in one place in a quite a long time.

 

“When will you propose?” Jumin asked. “I trust that you will do it properly.”

 

“He already did.” Yoosung called.

 

“The gifts and wine have arrived.” Jaehee informed everyone as she carried in a few presents and some wine. You hurried to help her carry everything along with Zen.

 

“Tell me. Aren’t you a bit uncomfortable with him proposing so publicly?” Zen asked you at one point, ready to get a tiny bit upset on your account, but you shook your head.

 

“It could’ve been a lot worse.” You confessed.

 

“With Saeyoung I would not be surprised.” Jaehee said after the gifts were placed down on the kitchen counters.

 

“To be honest,” Saeyoung said as he overheard your chatting from where he was talking with Yoosung about the gate to the front door, “it was so fun talking to the gate, so I played around with it.”

 

“You didn’t have the gate propose, did you?” Jaehee sighed, looking hilariously worried at the thought. You personally would’ve just laughed if the gate had done that for Saeyoung. You didn’t think you would’ve been able to take it seriously.

 

“He proposed in person.” You assured her.

 

“Miss Gate,” Saeyoung called in a louder voice, “where is the person who I plan to spend the rest of my life with?” You flushed at the words and were about to sputter at him not to do that to you, but the gate spoke first.

 

“There is someone who has been watching this whole situation unfold from a screen.” Everyone paused, confused at this response. You, however, felt your heart leap to your throat as you understood immediately. “Thank you for coming all this way.” The gate continued. “I hope this journey has made you happy. Thank you so much for solving all the riddles.”

 

“Huh?” Saeyoung asked with a surprised frown. “Is the gate broken?”

 

“How can something you made be broken?” Yoosung joked.

 

You ran a hand into your hair nervously. What was that? Had the gate been talking to you? But you hadn’t been watching this unfold from a screen. You had been living everything. Was that a message to the player at the end of the game? But . . . didn’t that mean that the game wasn’t finished? Your eyes widened in horror. If the game wasn’t over, then did that mean that-?

 

Your name was called and you looked up sharply to see Saeyoung grinning at you. “Come here. I want to hold your hand.”

 

“Cringing . . .” Zen muttered.

 

“I don’t think that’s anything you should say.” Yoosung playfully scolded.

 

“Saeyoung.” You whispered as you approached him and took his hand. He pulled you down onto the couch with him to sit. “Saeyoung, the gate-”

 

He gave you a small reassuring smile that let you know that he had caught it too. He was still ignoring things. How could he possibly ignore this? You couldn’t! “I just want to be with her all the time. What can I do?” He responded to the guys. His cheeks were red with his confession, which only made you blush in response. You weren’t used to these open confessions that he kept giving you and everyone. You weren’t sure your heart could handle it. Wait, don’t get distracted-!

 

“So jealous!!” Zen cried.

 

“I hope you continue to take care of your brother. It hasn’t been long since he’s recovered.” Jaehee interrupted. She turned to Saeran, and you were thoroughly distracted. You hadn’t even been paying attention to Saeran because he had been so quiet the entire time. Everyone around you was so noisy. “I mean . . .” She stumbled, “you are recovered, right?”

 

“Huh? Where’s Saeran?” Yoosung asked, looking around. They found him rather quickly hovering near the kitchen and watching everything. You saw the shy boy that Saeyoung had told you he had been when they were little. You didn’t think you had seen someone who was so awkwardly out of place before. You opened your mouth to invite him over, but Zen was already on it.

 

“What are you doing, bro? Come here!” He called.

 

Yoosung laughed. “What’s with that bro?” 

 

Jumin eyed the couch briefly as he approached you and Saeyoung. “There won’t be space for all of us on the sofa, so I will be standing.” You huffed a laugh. He was so formal that you couldn’t help it.

 

“Saeran, come here!” Saeyoung called. 

 

Jaehee considered everyone gathering near the couch. “. . . I feel like we need to take a photo.” She suggested with a small smile. 

 

“Do you think it’ll be like taking a family photo?” Yoosung joked.

 

“Well, we practically are a family.” Jumin pointed out.

 

_ Wow _ , you thought,  _ A family _ . You supposed that you could . . . consider the RFA to be your new family. They were all certainly very close. And it wasn’t like you had any family left in this world, despite what your supposed background said.

 

“I can’t believe Jumin’s saying that . . .” Zen rolled his eyes before pointing at the older man, “Yo trust fund kid! You can be my little brother then.”

 

“Sorry, but I’m older.” Jumin easily shot down the idea. Zen angrily clicked his tongue, glaring at the man. He looked like he was about to argue some more, but Saeran’s quiet voice broke through the din as he finally made it over to the couch.

 

“. . . There’s no space.”

 

There was a brief surprised silence considering it was the first Saeran had spoken around any of the other RFA since they had arrived there, but Yoosung recovered the quickest. “Here, you can sit here!” He motioned to the spot right next to you. It would be a little cramped on the couch, but there was enough space for Saeran to at least sit down. You scooted closer to Saeyoung to press flush against his hip and thigh so that Saeran would have plenty of room. Saeran silently sat down and held his arm. If anything he gave off even more of an awkward vibe now that he was in the middle of your group. You gave him a reassuring smile.

 

“I’ll be here!” Yoosung finished as he plopped himself on the armrest next to Saeyoung.

 

“I’ll stand beside Mr. Han.” Jaehee said. “I’ll go set the camera.”

 

“Okay!”

 

“Saeran . . .” Saeyoung murmured softly, leaning a little around you to look at his brother.

 

“The camera will go off in ten seconds.” Jaehee moved to stand beside Jumin behind the couch while Zen took his spot next to her.

 

“Don’t talk to me. We’re taking a photo.” Saeran muttered to Saeyoung.

 

“I’m happy.” Saeyoung’s voice came out as a broken whisper. You squeezed your linked hands together. “I’m so, so happy.”

 

Saeran’s own cheeks turned a little pink that reminded you of what his hair used to look like when the bleach had been fading and only made you smile more. “. . . Idiot.” He responded.

 

Saeyoung smiled at you and wrapped an arm around your shoulder. “I love you.” He said. “We are all one family.” Together you all called out, “We are the RFA!” right before the picture snapped.

 

Instantly a horribly familiar screech filled your mind. Once again it sounded like an old dial-up tone, only it was absolutely deafening and all-encompassing. Whatever thoughts were in your mind were utterly wiped under the onslaught as your body automatically tipped forward while you attempted to covered your ears. You thought you heard one of your friends crying out (were they hearing the noise too?) but that was the only thing you could process as you hit the floor. You felt as if every part of your body was disintegrating. You were evaporating into the air and all you could think about was that you were going to die. Game over. Fade to black. Restart.

 

You opened your eyes just long enough to catch a glimpse of your friends before black and green overtook your vision. Ones and zeros skittered across your eyes and under your skin. You squeezed your eyes shut again as your head threatened to explode. You thought that you might have heard someone call your name.

  
Blacking out was a relief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for the next chapter I had two different ways that this story could go. Essentially the plot would be the same but with one key difference. I was really conflicted about it, but after pitching both ideas to friends they agreed that the newer of the two ideas I came up with sounded more interesting in the long haul.
> 
> This story, also, is not going to be as big or heavy as my other stories. In a way it's very much self-indulgence that I figured others would find entertainment out of too. I hope you enjoy the rest of the fic!


	10. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So begins the slow down. Sorry this chapter is a little short.
> 
> I really need to update Memories of a Family, lol.

This had to be the worst headache that you’d ever had. Your very skull was throbbing almost as much as a speaker at a rave, and that made it difficult for you to focus on anything. If the rest of your body was in pain you couldn’t tell because you were too distracted. You were vaguely aware of a groan coming out of your mouth and you curling in on yourself to hold your head. The high-pitched dial-up noise had fade, but you could still hear the ringing in your ears. The temptation to vomit was there.

 

You didn’t even need to open your eyes and take in your surroundings to have an idea of what had just occurred. There were two options: 1. you had been sent back to your world, or 2. the game restarted on you. You weren’t so sure you were brave enough to open your eyes and face the possibility of the second option even though you were fairly sure it hadn’t occurred. You would cry if you didn’t think that would just make you feel even worse.

 

A hand touched your shoulder startling you, but you still didn’t uncurl from your fetal position. You weren’t strong enough yet. You’d rather pass out again or maybe just go to sleep. Both options sounded nice. Besides, whoever was speaking to you was making absolutely no sense at all. You couldn’t understand in the slightest. However you did recognize that voice and it was enough to coax you to open your eyes and acknowledge the world.

 

The hand on your shoulder tightened to grip it firmly as your blurry vision revealed to you a person you had thought you had been imagining. Despite that, Saeyoung was still there holding onto you. It felt too real to be fake. His face was coated with a layer of sweat and he looked about as pale and sickly as you felt. His golden eyes were tight with pain and stress as he watched you and attempted to talk to you in that gibberish. Only after a minute of you staring and not responding to his increasingly-distressed questions did you realize he was speaking Korean.

 

He called your name and moved to cup your face, leaning in closer to ask you another question. You finally got your mouth to work and swallowed. The pain in your head was receding somewhat and giving you some of your mental ability back.

 

“Saeyoung?” You asked, confused and lost. What was he doing here? In either scenario that occurred he shouldn’t be with you. On top of that, he was speaking Korean. Or, rather, you were actually hearing him speak Korean. Did that mean you were out of the game? Then why would he be there? There must be another explanation.

 

Saeyoung sighed in relief before looking around quickly and asking you another question. You stared at him blankly. He frowned and said something else. Oh. He has no idea you can’t understand him anymore.

 

“I-I can’t.” You cleared your throat and struggled to sit up. You managed to get to your knees before Saeyoung assisted you shakily to your feet. You held onto his arms while your mind swam. “I can’t understand you.” You finally got out.

 

Saeyoung paused, staring at you in surprise, before he quietly asked you something. You only shrugged because you didn’t trust shaking your head. “This is your native language then?” He asked instead, suddenly switching on you. You startled, delightfully surprised.

 

“Yes! Oh, wow, so you speak it?”

 

“I’m fluent in seventeen different languages. Luckily yours is one of them.” He looked around as he spoke. You wiped at the sweat on your head as you gave him an impressed grin.

 

“Seventeen! Holy crap, that’s amazing!” He gave you a smile back before it dropped back to a serious frown. 

 

“I guess I should adjust myself to talking in this language then if you can’t understand Korean.”

 

“The game automatically translated everything for me.”

 

“That would explain why you spoke it so easily.” He murmured. You had a feeling he would be more interested in this if your new surroundings weren’t distracting him. You glanced around too and immediately recognized everything. The room was different than you remembered, but your bed and a good chunk of your stuff was still there. The room smelled somewhat musty and the air kind of stale, though. That wasn’t a good sign.

 

“Oh.” You breathed, heart beginning to ache.

 

“How are you feeling?” Saeyoung asked you as he drew your attention back to himself.

 

“Horrible. Worse than the first time this happened. But it’s fading. But forget about me. What about you? You’re . . .” You motioned to him. Anxiety bubbled unpleasantly in your stomach. “We’re . . . We’re not in the game anymore.” 

 

You saw him swallow thickly as he once again looked around. “Ah . . . I had guessed that but . . .”

 

“How are you here?” You asked him quietly, uncomprehending. It should be impossible that he was there with you. He was a video game character born and raised in the game. He shouldn’t be able to come out into the real world with you. Even if said real world was somewhat strange to you now. “Are  _ you _ feeling alright?”

 

“My head feels like it’s at a concert without my permission, but other than that I’m.” He stopped and didn’t finish whatever he was about to say. You wouldn’t push him to finish. You couldn’t say that you would be okay in his shoes either.

 

“You shouldn’t have been able to come with me, though. How did you do it?” You pressed for that information instead.

 

“When that noise started up, we all had to cover our ears. But I saw you fall forward and . . .” He searched for some word, frowning. He murmured something in Korean, but you shrugged not understanding. He shook his head. “I don’t know how to describe it in this language.”

 

“I felt like I was disintegrating.” You offered up. “Was it something like that? Maybe digitizing?”

 

Saeyoung paled a bit more at that description but he nodded. “That . . . sounds about right.”

 

“At least I wasn’t electrocuted.” You joked.

 

“When you fell forward, I grabbed for you. I figured out pretty quickly what was happening.” He slowly released you now that you were steadier on your feet and sat heavily upon your old bed. “I didn’t think I would be taken with you.” He finished quietly.

 

You sat down next to him and leaned against his shoulder. The bed no longer had blankets or sheets or pillows on it. You were aware now that one of your fears was true. You tried not to focus on it at that moment. “. . . I guess we were wrong about the game being over.” Your hand found his and you linked your fingers together. The ring on your finger was still foreign, but it made you feel a bit better to see it. “Saeyoung . . . I’m so sorry.”

 

Saeyoung didn’t respond for a long moment before he sighed loudly and shook his head. “No, we shouldn’t think the worst yet!” He leaned forward to peer into your face. “Let me see your phone. Maybe we can see what’s happening with the game?”

 

“Oh! Good idea!” You looked around for your phone considering you hadn’t had it on you when you had been transported back from the game. Your dress didn’t have pockets, after all. Your purse and phone had been on the counter of Saeyoung’s house. Hopefully your phone came back with you. “Oh, thank God!” You breathed as you spotted it lying on the floor. You jumped up and brought it to your fiancé before taking your seat back next to him again.

 

“It’s different.” He pointed out, mildly surprised as he flipped it over to look at it. 

 

“It’s my old phone. I got MC’s phone when I arrived in the game.”

 

“MC?” He asked.

 

“Main Character. She never had a name that I knew of, and the fandom all called her that.”

 

“Fandom.” Saeyoung murmured, testing the word on his lips as he easily typed in your password and opened up your phone. You pressed the correct game app and both of you watched it open with the creator’s credits. You noticed that the opening screen wasn’t the same as it was when you had gone into the game. Rather than displaying the RFA group, it instead showed a mysterious girl (who looked much more like you than you recalled the MC appearing. Had you affected the game somehow?) with a heart. It appeared that a Valentine’s Day event had occurred while you had been in the game.

 

“Oh. The game got some DLC.” You said.

 

“This is making me a bit uncomfortable.” Saeyoung complained.

 

“Sorry.”

 

“It’s one thing to know something and another to see proof of it. Show me what you did?” You took the phone from him and navigated to the main app. To your relief it still displayed the way it had in the game itself with the ability to text, call, and chat. Even your friends’ profiles were up. You went to the phone calls and saw that your phone history was the same. Hope rose in you.

 

“Look! It’s still the same history, Saeyoung. Maybe that means the game is safe?” You asked, excited. It seemed to calm him down somewhat to hear this as well. Before either of you could explore the app more, though, a phone call came through. Saeyoung nearly fumbled the phone in his haste to answer it. Before he could say anything you could hear Yoosung’s voice as he rapidly spoke in Korean. Your stomach clenched at the panic in his voice, and soon enough you heard some of your other friends shouting over the phone too.

 

Saeyoung responded back with tense relief as he spoke and eventually calmed them down. You only watched your fiancé’s face because you couldn’t understand a word being said. You leaned in closer so you could listen nonetheless. Saeyoung tilted the phone towards you so that you could hear, but you didn’t speak at all. You only could watch as he nodded or sighed in his responses. After a few minutes of not understanding, you gave up.

 

“Saeyoung,” You stage-whispered, “what are you saying?”

 

Saeyoung glanced at you and made a complicated face before quickly telling the others something and switching back to your language, “They were worried when we disappeared. They’re all fine, but obviously freaking out. I was reassuring them we’re both fine.”

 

“Saeyoung.” Jumin called over the phone, “Why are you speaking in this language?” You startled to realize he had spoken in your tongue.

 

“Wait, you can understand us?” You asked.

 

Zen muttered something from the background in confusion, but Jumin ignored him and responded, “Yes, of course. I am in charge of an international corporation. I know a couple languages.”

 

“Yes, it’s the same for me.” Jaehee piped up.

 

Yoosung whined a bit. Saeyoung took back over as he switched back to Korean. You stood up and decided that you wouldn’t be of help here. You glanced around your mostly-untouched room and felt anxiety build in your gut. Time had continued here without you. Were your pets here? And your family? You should go check. It probably wouldn’t be the best idea to have Saeyoung with you in case they were home. Did they hear the high-pitched noise as well? There was only one way to find out.

 

Saeyoung grabbed your wrist to stop you. “Where are you going?” He asked quickly.

 

You wrapped your hand around his and smiled nervously with a shrug. “We’re at my old house. I have to see if anybody is home.”

 

“Wait and I’ll come with you.”

 

You shook your head. “You fill in the others of the situation. It’s better that they know now, and you’re the only one who can do it. I’ll deal with my family, if they’re home.”

 

Saeyoung didn’t look too pleased. His eyes darted to the bedroom door and back to you. “I can talk and walk.” He ignored the others trying to get his attention again over the phone.

 

You leaned down and kissed his cheek before pulling away from his hold. “I’ll be right back.” You promised and pointed at the phone. “Keep talking to them. I won’t be long.” Your house wasn’t especially big, after all. Before Saeyoung could get up and follow you, you exited the bedroom with your stomach rolling and your head still throbbing. You hoped your family kept the aspirin in the same place, you thought rather wildly. You huffed a laugh to yourself and closed the door behind you. 

 

How the hell would you explain this to your family?


	11. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My posting is so sporadic.

The first thing you really noticed outside of your own anxiety was the nostalgia that washed over you like a wave. It was surreal coming back to your old house after having lived in a completely different place for nearly a year. The view outside of your windows was familiar but foreign to you now. It felt like a breath of fresh air to see all of the greenery and the wide open space that the city didn’t provide, but it made your muscles have an unexpected itch to them that made you uncomfortable. You turned your gaze away to take in the inside of your house only to gasp slightly as you spotted one of your cats.

 

“Socks!” You breathed, heart filling with joy at the sight of the creature. Her grey ears perked up and she stared at you with wide eyes. You could tell she was nervous but that she recognized you. It had been a long time, admittedly. She was fatter than you remembered her being. You loved her all the same. “Come here, cutie~” You crooned, kneeling down. She trotted over immediately, a purr vibrating from her body as you petted her. She was just as soft as you remembered. You might cry. Where were your other cats?

 

Your name being called made you freeze even as Socks mewed for more attention. You turned your head to find your little brother staring at you in shock in the doorway to his bedroom. You hadn’t even noticed that a door had been opened. Oh God, you felt sick suddenly seeing how pale he was. He could only stare at you for a long moment as if disbelieving your existence. You didn’t blame him. Your arms tightened instinctively around your cat before giving him a nervous smile. Even though you had been gone for so long, you didn’t feel it very much at that moment. Your brother hadn’t changed much other than being somewhat taller and his hair being longer. 

 

“Hi, Dalton.” You said.

 

“Holy shit.” He responded instead of a greeting. He moved towards you, but didn’t go for a hug. He had never been physically affectionate. Instead he could only look you up and down, eyes still wide behind his glasses, before he swallowed thickly. “Where the hell have you been?” He asked.

 

You pressed your face to Socks’s fur briefly, fighting back the anxiety in your chest. Your head was throbbing even harder due to the resistance you were putting up against your emotions. You should really look into getting some aspirin soon. “It’s, uh, super complicated. I’m probably going to be explaining it a lot . . . is Mother here?” You could only imagine your mother’s reaction to your reappearance after over eight months of not being there. She would be a wreck. You weren’t looking forward to it.

 

“How the heck is it super complicated? Weren’t you kidnapped or something? And no, she’s not. She’s out right now.” That’s a surprise.

 

You figured you might as well break the news to Dalton. He would have to find out eventually, and it would be better to explain who your fiance was now before Saeyoung decided to appear. You shot a look towards your bedroom door, but he had yet to come out. Maybe he was actually finishing up the conversation with your friends. His story would be long as well. You hoped they were taking it well. You were anxious to go back to them. You felt very much alone at the moment without Saeyoung’s support.

 

Swallowing down the wish to flee, you turned back to your sibling. “It sounds impossible, and I doubt anyone will believe me easily, but I was sucked into a video game.”

 

“What.” Dalton asked, making a dubious face. You could tell he didn’t really doubt you, but rather thought you were joking. 

 

“I’m serious.” Socks began to struggle in your arms, and so you released her. You wondered where your other cats were. Your dog, Remy, was already back out in the living room with you. You gave him a friendly pat as he passed you by. You couldn’t help but pay attention to the animals when you were talking about serious things. “I started to play a game and it . . . did something to me and then I was pulled into the game. I’ve been living in a game for the past few months.”

 

“What the heck.” Dalton ruffled his messy hair. “That’s not possible.”

 

“But I’m not lying.” You huffed a sardonic laugh. “You have no idea what I’ve been through. It’s been an adventure.”

 

“Was it an adventure game?”

 

“No, it was a dating sim.”

 

“That is  _ so _ typical of you.” Dalton rolled his eyes, and you couldn’t help but grin as some tension released from your chest. He believed you. It also seemed like he wasn’t going to make this an awkward reunion. It would be weird enough to do it with the rest of your family members . . . and your friends . . . and possibly your coworkers . . . at least your brother didn’t expect anything. It was almost enough to make you hug him anyway. Maybe when you didn’t feel like you wanted to vomit you would hug him.

 

“Right? I was lucky. Although I did come close to dying in it a couple times.” You confessed.

 

“What, how?” 

 

“You would not  _ believe _ the crap that went on in this game-” You cut off, though, as you heard your bedroom door crack open. Both you and Dalton turned towards it as Saeyoung peeked out around the corner, a concerned frown on his face. His eyes widened and he froze when his gaze landed on Dalton. Neither man moved for a long couple of moments. Your head throbbed with your pulse.

 

Dalton turned back to you and pointed at Saeyoung. “Who’s that?”

 

“Um.” You responded.

 

Saeyoung hesitated before opening the door all of the way. He didn’t leave the room quite yet as his eyes met yours. You bit the inside of your lip. You weren’t unable to just explain who Saeyoung was, but you wanted to see if he had anything he wanted to say. He only raised his eyebrows. You motioned him over with a nervous smile. He was quick to approach then.

 

“Did everything go okay?” You asked him softly.

 

“It’s a work in progress.” He admitted to you. “I . . . didn’t finish explaining yet.”

 

“What? Why?”

 

“I couldn’t focus when you left. I was too busy hoping you were okay.” 

 

You felt something in your chest soften even as you laughed a tiny bit. Saeyoung never really changed even after he became “Saeyoung” again rather than “Luciel”. He still couldn’t focus without your presence in tense situations. You understood that feeling.

 

“You have to tell them eventually.” You told him, reaching for his hand to take it. “We’ll try to call them back in a minute, okay? Saeyoung, this is my younger brother Dalton. Dalton, this is Saeyoung. He’s, uh, my fiance.”

 

“Wow.” Dalton responded, eyebrows raised. “Uh.”

 

Saeyoung grinned a bit. “The ‘uh’-ing runs in the family, huh?” He teased.

 

“Shut up!” You laughed, nudging him.

 

“He’s funny.” Dalton noted. “Are you a video game character?”

 

“Hmm . . . apparently.” Saeyoung scratched at his neck, clearly still uncomfortable thinking about it. He casually looked around himself, but you wondered if he was actually taking stock of your home. Maybe the differences between the world you had both been in and the one you were in now? “I’ve seen what I look like drawn out, at least.”

 

You personally really liked 2-D Saeyoung just as much as the real thing, but you weren’t quite sure he would appreciate you saying that at the moment.

 

“What video game was it, anyway?” Dalton asked you with a devious smile already pulling at his lips. You knew he was trying to embarrass you in front of your fiancee. Well, too bad! You had already completed that humiliating conversation, thank you very much!

 

“It’s a phone game called ‘Mystic Messenger’. It’s Korean.” You informed them.

 

“Obviously.” Dalton’s eyes darted to Saeyoung. Despite the red hair and gold eyes, he still very much looked Korean. If he was of mixed blood, he hasn’t told you what other blood it was. “I’m guessing your eye color is natural?”

 

“I wouldn’t be wearing glasses otherwise.” Saeyoung winked, but tensed when you both heard a familiar ringtone go off in his pocket. He hesitated to pick it up. You touched his forearm.

 

“Saeyoung, you should probably-”

 

“Not yet.” Saeyoung ran his hand through his hair, glancing down at his pocket. “I . . . this is important too. I told them I would call them back.”

 

“Who?” Dalton asked.

 

“We’re still able to talk to our friends back in the game world.” You told him quickly. You didn’t like leaving them behind. They were probably so confused and upset. You didn’t know what all Saeyoung told them. You would pick up the phone yourself if you knew they would understand you. Well, Jumin and Jaehee would. Maybe Saeran? You didn’t know. You missed them abruptly.

 

“Seriously? Can I see?” Dalton moved closer, but then the phone stopped ringing. You didn’t doubt it would start up again soon. Saeyoung didn’t relax, but you noticed immediately when he became distracted. He gasped sharply, hands coming to grab your arms. You saw his eyes locked onto Socks, who stared at him with startled eyes. She was shy around strangers. You knew any second she would dart off. You would catch her before she could hide.

 

Saeyoung was so surprised by the sight of the animal that when he tried to talk to you, he had switched back to his natural language. He corrected himself a moment later. “Babe, is that your cat? Oh my God, she’s  _ beautiful _ !!”

 

“Socks~” You sang. “Come say hi to Saeyoung~”

 

Socks, in response, attempted to run.

 

You were instantly after her, very used to your animals running. Socks was fast, but you still remembered the usual places she liked to hide. Soon enough you had scooped up the little nervous ball and carried her back to Saeyoung who was waiting eagerly with your brother. His golden eyes sparkled with absolute delight as you came in close so he could pet her. 

 

The tiny noise he made in response to petting her was one of the strangest sounds you had ever heard from Saeyoung, and it caused you to start laughing. You only stopped when your head rebelled. “Holy shit, she’s so soft! Socks~” He cooed, stroking her cheeks and pressing his face to her side. You fell a bit more in love with him at the sight. You did the exact same thing to your animals. 

 

“Where are the other cats?” You asked your brother.

 

Dalton, who continued to hover around the three of you, shrugged. “I’m sure Matilda will be here in a moment, the little whore. But Kyoko’s probably already hiding.”

 

“Whore?” Saeyoung asked, startled by the sudden rude name.

 

“She’s an attention whore.” You explained. Carefully you passed Socks off to him and looked around for your other cat. “She’ll be out here soon. She’s probably sleeping.”

 

“I’m not letting this cat go.” Saeyoung warned you as he relaxed enough to finally sit on the couch. You were glad to see him looking so delighted. It was better than the stress and sickness that had lingered around him a couple of minutes ago. Cats were so revitalizing for the both of you, apparently. But you still wanted some medication. 

 

You shared a look with Dalton and glanced quickly at the kitchen before entering it. Dalton followed after you. It wasn’t like you wouldn’t be overheard by Saeyoung anyway -it was a fairly small house that you lived in compared to Saeyoung’s rather large house- but you still wanted to give him a bit of privacy. Also you didn’t doubt that he would follow soon afterwards.

 

“How has everyone been?” You asked your brother softly, worried. You automatically went for some medicine, pulling out enough of a dosage for Saeyoung as well. You two could share a glass of water.

 

“Not great.” Dalton admitted, playing with the fabric of his shirt some. You noted that he still wore his headphones around his neck. You wondered if he used them a lot more nowadays. You could only imagine the horror of everything. “Mother’s been a wreck ever since the investigations stopped and no leads came up to finding you.” His voice was weak.

 

You cringed, shuddering. You didn’t like hearing any of those things in relation to you. “I . . . didn’t leave on purpose.” You murmured. “I would’ve given you all a head’s up if I knew it would happen.”

 

“Oh really?” Dalton asked sarcastically, messing with you. You shoved his shoulder, although it wasn’t strong enough to really move his bulk. He may be your younger brother, but he was bigger in every respect compared to you. 

 

“Shut up, I’m serious.”

 

“Yeah, I know.”

 

“Did you guys . . . have a funeral for me or anything?”

 

“No, but they thought about it.” Dalton looked uncomfortable with discussing it. You didn’t feel any easier. You were not looking forward to the other conversations would you be having with your family members. And your friends. And your work.

 

“Ugh, shit. I’ve been fired, haven’t I?” You said. “And what about my car? Is that gone too?”

 

“Granny kept up the payments. It’s my car now.”

 

“Oh, you finally got your license. ‘Bout time.”

 

“Fuck you.”

 

You grinned. You had missed him. 

 

Saeyoung cried out in the other room. “Socks, nooo!!” He yelled as you saw Socks run past you. Your dog started barking at Saeyoung in response, the nervous creature that he was. “Why do they always run from meee?” He whimpered only half-seriously as he slunk into the kitchen. 

 

“It’s okay. They run from me too. She’ll get used to you. Wait until you meet Matilda. She’ll insist on cuddling.” You comforted him, patting him on the back.

 

“I can’t believe you were gone for eight months and came back engaged. It’s freaking weird.” Dalton said as his eyes strayed to the ring on your finger. You felt your cheeks warm a little bit as you ignored the comment in favor of handing off the rest of the medicine and the cup of water to Saeyoung. 

 

“Weird how?” He asked as he gratefully downed the items.

 

“She’s never dated anyone before, so it’s the first time she’s brought someone home.”

 

“Dalton!” You hissed, mortified. 

 

“Oho?” Saeyoung cracked a smile. “I guess I should’ve expected that since you were playing a dating simulator~”

 

You covered your face with a groan. “No! No teaming up on me!”

 

“Why?” Dalton asked.

 

You pointed sharply at him. “You’re an instigator, that’s why!”

 

He gasped. “That’s slander!”

 

Saeyoung gasped too. “Honey, how could you be so mean to your little brother?”

 

“You shut up too!” You poked his chest.

 

“Oh, we’re gonna get along so well.” Dalton grinned. 

  
You were suddenly regretting falling in love with such a mean person. You supposed that’s what you got for Saeyoung being exactly your type. You groaned and grumbled, but you were having fun. That was all that mattered, you thought. Besides, things wouldn’t be easy from here. While Dalton may have adjusted to you back quickly (you weren’t surprised in the least. Dalton had always been adaptable to anything that didn’t personally piss him off), everyone else would be a different story. You weren’t looking forward to it. You hoped that at least Saeyoung was taking things as well as it seemed as he laughed with Dalton and searched for Matilda.


	12. Interlude 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was ridiculously easy for me to write this chapter. It's rather surprising. Let's hope that means good things for my muse!

Saeyoung was holding back from an all-out panic attack. Only hours ago he had been running on Cloud 9 because the woman he loved had agreed to share her life with him. Now he was standing in a completely new country with the entire world that he knew burning against his leg in his pocket. His brother and his friends were now in a world that was completely separated from the world he was in now. His  fiancée now was unable to understand him if he spoke Korean even though just a couple of hours ago she had been speaking it just as fluently as everyone else around him. His whole world was a phone app that rested in his pocket where the game his love had been playing had ended, and now he was in the “real” world.

 

Saeyoung was about to have a “real” freak-out.

 

He was rather proud of himself, if he could say that. It was easy enough to disassociate from his emotions considering his training with the Agency, but this was a whole new level of “repress and ignore”. He could feel it building behind his sternum, wiggling and struggling like worms in a can, but he could ignore it. He was doing an  _ excellent _ job of ignoring it. He had to, after all. He had  _ things _ he needed to handle before he was given the luxury to have a full-scale existential crisis that had been hovering in the back of his mind since he had first been told the truth of his existence. 

 

He was distracted by the fact that he was meeting his  fiancée ’s family. Saeyoung had been aware that she had an entire family back in her world that she lived with, but it was completely unexpected to meet them. It was the strangest thing considering his information that he had gathered on her when she had first entered the RFA (most of which was false, according to her. Falsified by the game to make her “real” for the RFA) told him that she had a mother and father and that they both lived in Korea having moved there from their home country to start a family. Yet here he was meeting her actual family, all of who did  _ not _ speak Korean and in fact never had lived there. It was disorienting.

 

On one level there was the fact that he had to meet everyone when they were still in hysterics that their daughter was back. It was hard to watch her mom sob as she hugged her daughter, especially when Saeyoung could see the awkward discomfort on his  fiancée ’s face. She didn’t know how to handle this any better than he did. She was handling it pretty well considering everything, he thought, since she had apparently been missing from her world for eight months. She took the brunt of all of their questions having to explain again to both her mother and step-father what had occurred to her. It sounded more unbelievable the more Saeyoung heard it even though he literally lived it himself. It was a long story.

 

On the second level Saeyoung was  _ meeting his fianc _ _ é _ _ e’s parents.  _ When he had proposed to her, he had never anticipated he would get to meet her parents. He wasn’t prepared for this. He was much less prepared to be bombarded with questions about himself and his relationship with their daughter. He allowed his 707 façade to pull to the forefront as he joked with the family in an attempt to charm them. The parents didn’t have quite the same silly sense of humor Saeyoung shared with his fianc é e (and her brother judging by his amused inputs), but he thought he charmed them well enough. Which was good because the back of his neck prickled with unease when he realized they were sizing him up. And he felt actual sweat break out on him when her mom examined the ring he had given to his lovely fianc ée.

 

The parents had asked to see the game that Saeyoung was from, but he was reluctant to mess with it. He was absolutely terrified that the data in the game would erase itself now that it was over for “MC”. That app was his only connection to his world and his family and his friends. He still needed to call them back after he had become too anxious to follow after his fiancée. They were probably worrying. Saeyoung wasn’t any better. 

 

At least his fiancée seemed to understand that. He could see how she watched him, waiting for him to break down. He wasn’t fooling her one bit. She was so perceptive when she wanted to be. She was always aware of how he was feeling even when he attempted to hide it. He had grown less and less able to fool her the longer they had been together. Her hand in his comforted him, but how they both fidgeted with each other’s fingers comforted him even more. She was just as anxious about the entire thing as she was. She covered for him insisting that they were too scared to mess with the app.

 

“I’ll show you once we’re certain nothing has gone wrong with the game.” She had informed her parents. “We don’t want to risk anything.” Her mother had insisted back that surely it couldn’t be that bad, but she had dropped the subject in favor of just being happy that her daughter was back. Saeyoung tried to exit out of the conversation quickly as he got up to fetch the nearby Matilda. Cats were so much better. Her purrs made him feel so much better. He was so happy there were cats that existed and lived in that household.

 

Eventually they were both released when the parents had nothing else to ask and with Dalton managing to pry the family gathering apart. Saeyoung and his fiancée retreated to the bedroom as soon as they could, both needing a breather. The panic only came closer to the surface, but he bit it back a little while longer.

 

“Are you alright?” She asked him, hesitating to get too close until she came to the conclusion that Saeyoung would be okay with close affection at the moment. His heart was racing and a cold sweat was covering his body. Nonetheless he still attempted a smile.

 

“Could be better.” He confessed.

 

“Do you need some water?” She asked. “Fresh air? You look . . .” She didn’t finish. Frankly Saeyoung could say she didn’t look much better. Her hands that gripped his kept tightening and relaxing. He could feel and see the tension in her body. The beginnings of tremors were dancing over her skin and transferring to his. He couldn’t help but laugh a bit.

 

“We’re both about to have attacks, babe.” He laughed because there was nothing else he could really do. The fountain was beginning to overflow. He needed air, so he dropped her hands and stepped back. She started laughing, but the laughter transformed into a few gasping breaths. She slid to the floor and began to struggle for air. Saeyoung sat on the other side of the room for her, trying unsuccessfully to hold himself together. Tears sprang to his eyes.

 

His family was gone. He was trapped in a completely different world. Everything was crumbling around him. All he had wanted to do was propose to the woman he loved, but apparently that had been enough to trigger the ending to the game. The ending that he had been certain wouldn’t exist. Why did there have to be an ending? Things were just beginning for his life. 

 

He curled up hard into himself, gasping for air as he placed his glasses aside. His hands buried themselves into his hair before he felt something small and soft slip into his hand. He squeezed it tightly before looking at it. He registered a small stuffed cat that was just hard enough to feel pleasurable as he squeezed it. A stress-ball, he realized.

 

“It’s alright.” His fiancée said through her own choking gasps. She hiccupped a sob and shook her head, gritting her teeth as her eyes met his. Her own glasses were damp before she removed them to place on her bed. Saeyoung couldn’t feel the ground beneath him. “It’s alright. This will work out. We’ll be alright. Calm down. I shouldn’t lose it too much. It’s alright. I’m alright. We’re alright.” She was rambling to herself. Saeyoung wasn’t sure if it was supposed to help him calm down or to help her. The break in her voice only made him cry more.

 

How was he going to handle this? It was one thing to know that he was in a game but it was much harder to be suddenly thrust from said game. He wasn’t even sure how he was existing. He was terrified. How the hell had his fiancée handled suddenly entering the game? She was just like him, only she didn’t have the  _ very real possibility _ that her  _ entire world could be erased _ . Oh God, he was going to vomit. This wasn’t helping the throbbing headache he’d already gotten from the transfer from the game to the new world. He felt utterly sick. Crying wasn’t like him, but to be fair this had been a long time coming.

 

Dalton did knock at one point and peek in (Saeyoung wasn’t sure how he had managed to pick up that tidbit when he couldn’t even remember what day it was) but he didn’t stay very long as his sister shook her head to get him to leave. Saeyoung was positive that he had started mumbling to himself at one point, and he was sure it was around the time he registered that his back was now being rubbed. His companion had pulled herself together faster than he did. Her murmurs helped, but all he could think about was berating himself. He needed to pull himself back together. He needed to call his brother. He needed to know what was happening in the game. He needed to figure out what he was going to do next. He couldn’t do any of that when his mind was utterly washed out. He couldn’t think. He was exhausted and sick.

 

Eventually, though, the panic had to recede. His mental capabilities didn’t really come back, though. He felt nothing but fatigue and even his sore eyes were too heavy to open. He was laying on the floor with his grip slowly relaxing around the stuffed cat in his hand when he came back to his senses enough to process his situation. His fiancée continued to rub his back, her own eyes red as she gazed at him with empathy. 

 

“Do you need water?” She asked quietly. “You should drink something to replenish your fluids. I already have a glass here.”

 

“What time is it?” He asked instead. He didn’t really have the energy to sit up, but he did anyway. She shifted so that he could slump on her. His body was sore. The tile floor had hurt his bones. He swallowed around a dry mouth.

 

“I dunno.” She confessed and handed him the class of water to drink. He accepted and took a few sips. “You have my phone.”

 

Shit, the phone. Had anyone tried to call? Saeyoung reached into his pocket to pull it out. He was sure his leg would have an indent of the device in it. The phone showed there were notifications from the app. They must be phone calls. Saeyoung needed to call them back. He couldn’t remember the password to get in.

 

She took the phone from his hands. “Can you stand?” She asked. “You need to get some sleep. You look like you’re about to collapse.”

 

“What about you?” He asked. He felt horrid, but she probably didn’t feel too much better. 

 

“I still have to do stuff. I can’t sleep right now.” She huffed a sardonic laugh. Why did she always have to be stubborn and hide things from him? He could read her so easily. He didn’t have the energy to argue, though. Reluctantly he climbed to his feet. His muscles ached from the tension that had ripped through them, but his legs supported him enough to collapse onto her bed. Somehow she procured a blanket and some pillows for him. His eyes fell shut immediately.

 

“Don’t leave.” He commanded when he heard her shift. His hand reached out to grab her wrist. “Stay near me.”

 

She was quiet for a moment before the bed dipped under her weight. “Okay.” She said. He scooted over and she took the invitation to lie down next to him. He didn’t realize how much he had needed her warmth until he had it. She shifted around until they were both in a comfortable enough position before she settled with him curled behind her, forehead pressed to the back of her neck. He tried to synchronize his breath with hers. 

 

A long silence overtook them. Saeyoung could hear the sounds of the family moving around outside of the room. The clink of pots alerted him to food being made. Maybe a celebratory dinner? Had they mentioned dinner? The television was also on out in the living room. Everything felt so foreign to Saeyoung. He let himself be wrapped up in the small bubble that was just him and the woman he loved. Everything else could wait. 

  
Maybe if he was lucky he would wake up to find all of it to be a dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This won't be the last time for this story that we'll see Saeyoung's pov of things. This freak-out has been coming for a while. I don't know what kind of panic attacks Saeyoung would have, but the shock of all of this was just too much for him. And then MC of course has her own stress that caused her attack.


	13. Chapter 11

You were completely and utterly drained. Your eyes were sore from crying and your chest hurt from your hyperventilations from earlier. Every bit of your essence felt like it had emptied out of you along with the stress that had caused your attack. Laying in bed was a relief. Having Saeyoung’s arm over you as he cuddled up against your back was even better. You would’ve preferred better circumstances (such as more air conditioner in the room because it was stuffy and now you had a body pressed to you. Oh, and also it would’ve been nice if both of you hadn’t just suffered attacks) but that was just your life now you supposed. On top of that your headache had only returned full force. It hadn’t even had time to properly abate. Again, that was just you life now.

 

You allowed yourself some time to just listen to the soft breaths of Saeyoung. It had been horrible to watch him panic earlier. You knew it must have been coming a long time to reach this point. Saeyoung had never actually said he had managed to dodge the existential crisis and now on top of it he was no longer in his world. None of that could’ve been good on his psyche. He had held up very well over the past couple of hours, but you had seen the tension in his body as he lost himself more and more. It was the entire reason why you two had retreated to your bedroom. He had held up much better than you who had lost it just over the stress from everything returning you back to your old home. You had to deal with your old life now. It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

 

Saeyoung was deep asleep and you wanted very badly to join him. Your eyes begged for relief from the daylight, but you couldn’t yet. You had a duty to take care of after all. Your friends had waited long enough for their explanations. You were sure they were going to call again soon. Were they all still at Saeyoung’s house? Was Saeran alright? They must all be pretty freaked out. You would have to be quiet about it, though. You didn’t want to wake up your boyfriend (fiancé. He was your fiancé now). Saeyoung deserved the sleep.

 

You carefully got a hold of your phone and opened up the messenger. You could only stare at it for a long moment. It was a game again. It had stopped being a game to you so long ago. Why did this have to happen? There was no point in lingering on it right now. You needed to call your friends.

 

You hesitated between calling Jumin and Jaehee. Jaehee was someone you had grown very close to, but Jumin seemed to understand your language better. Jumin unnerved you some, but he was nice. You liked him. Your hesitation was ridiculous. You called him. He picked up the phone almost immediately. He spoke in Korean. Frick.

 

“Um,” You said while keeping your voice soft enough not to disturb your light-sleeper of a fiancé, “sorry. It’s not Saeyoung.”

 

“Oh.” Jumin switched immediately, the words flowing effortlessly off of his tongue, “I see. I am glad you’ve called. It’s about time.”

 

“Sorry again! It’s, um, been difficult to make the time.”

 

“What do you mean?” You heard voices in the background clamoring for the phone. You instantly recognized your friends’ voices. They must all still be together. You felt guilty for making them wait so long. You already knew that Jumin and Jaehee had to go back to work at some point. You had been too busy dealing with your blood family to even consider your family in the game. Ugh, you were an idiot. “Hold on a moment.” Jumin turned away from the phone to say something. Then he was back, “I will put you on speaker phone. Assistant Kang shall be translating for the others.”

 

“Okay.” You readily agreed.

 

“I’m glad you agree. Now please explain what has happened to you and Saeyoung. He did not tell us much when he was on the phone, only that neither of you were ‘in this world any longer’. It sounded as if he had been distracted worrying about you. Are you alright?”

 

You sighed. That was just like Saeyoung to skimp on the important details when he was focusing on you. That meant the awkward explanations had to come from you. You were looking forward to it even less than when you had explained it to Saeyoung.

 

“Yes, I’m alright. Saeyoung is as well. He’s asleep right now because the shock of everything kind of . . . well. We’re both recovering. I’ll have to talk softly so I don’t wake him.”

 

Jumin gave time for Jaehee to translate before responding, “Where are you two right now? Are you safe then if Saeyoung is actually sleeping?”

 

“We’re both safe. It may be hard to believe, but we’re at my house. My, um, real house.” Okay this was going to get weird really fast. Goddammit. “Should I just explain? It’s . . . it’s not easy to hear.”

 

“Yes. Explain slowly and concisely. You’ve kept us all waiting long enough.”

 

You did explain. You told them about the game and how you had downloaded it onto your phone. You explained about the shock that put you into the game and how you were able to speak Korean because of the automatic translations but now you couldn’t understand a word. You confessed how Saeyoung had learned the truth while he had been staying with you at Rika’s apartment and the two of you had been holding off on telling everyone until you were both positive that you wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. And how even then neither of you had been sure you _wanted_ to tell them. There was no point in causing distress over a moot point, right?

 

Finally you said, “And . . . it looks like Saeyoung’s proposal was the true ending to the game. So now . . . I’m back in my world.”

 

Yoosung was the one to speak first after a long silence, and even then after an extra hesitation did Jaehee translate by asking, “How is it possible that this is . . . all a video game? It’s not possible.”

 

“I’m sorry.” You murmured, pained at the shock and mild horror in their voices. Saeyoung shifted next to you and you held your breath as his arm slipped down your body and pressed closer. His arm must be starting to hurt, you thought. He had been sleeping on it for a while now. You wished that your bed was bigger. You scooted over so he could lay a bit more on his back.

 

“What does this mean for us?” She translated for Zen.

 

“Nothing, I don’t think.” You cringed to yourself. “Saeyoung and I . . . we haven’t had time to come up with a game plan. But we’re going to figure something out, I swear!”

 

Your name was called then by a softer voice, startling you a bit. You hadn’t even realized Saeran was there considering he hadn’t talked once the entire time. Oh god, Saeyoung’s brother . . . Oh Saeyoung . . . You wanted to hug him, but that would require rolling over. And you didn’t want to risk waking him by basically talking in his face.

 

“Why did Saeyoung go with you?” Saeran demanded, speaking your language somewhat haltingly. “He’s part of the game as well, isn’t he?”

 

“He is. From what he said he grabbed me as I started to disappear from the game. I think he just came with me?”

 

“That’s proof then.” Jumin muttered mostly to himself although it sounds like Jaehee translated for him anyway. “We all heard the loud screech as well as saw you both disappear.” That must of been horrifying to watch. “This truly is a game.”

 

Zen cried out in the background and Yoosung scrambled to be heard over him. You pulled the phone away from your ear and further from Saeyoung before bringing it back after Jaehee had shushed them. Then she asked, “What will happen to us? Do either of you two know? Are we safe?” Yoosung whimpered a bit as he said something in the background. They were scared, you understood. You wished you could do more to comfort them.

 

“As far as we know you all are safe.” You promised. “If the game hasn’t reset now . . . I don’t think it will unless we manually reset it. Which we definitely _won’t_ do.”

 

“Are we able to communicate through your phone only?” She asked. “You have not been able to enter the chatroom in quite some time.”

 

“That was the game’s fault. Maybe . . . Maybe Saeyoung can fix it?”

 

“Are we still able to text you?” Jumin asked.

 

You didn’t know. “Someone can try?”

 

“Okay!” Zen responded.

 

“I wonder if the game will translate the texts for me? It did while I was in the game.” You wondered aloud.

 

Jaehee murmured something to Jumin in Korean that he responded to quietly. Then he was back to speaking to you. “When Saeyoung awakes, have him call me. I will take the phone call even if I am busy. We need to talk.”

 

“I’m not sure he will be able to answer your questions more than I can.” You confessed. “Can you wait a day? It will be late soon and this has been pretty hard on him physically and emotionally. We need to discuss what we want to do now. I’m sorry.”

 

“Hmm. I understand. Fine then, have him call me tomorrow morning. Are our timezones different now?”

 

“No, they’re the same I believe.”

 

“Odd. Your country should be in a different timezone than us.”

 

“More proof that it’s a game, I suppose.” Jaehee sighed.

 

Your phone buzzed with a text. When you pulled it away from your face to see the notification, you were delightfully surprised to see that the preview of the message was readable to you. You could communicate with your friends now! You hoped that your responses were also translated back. “It worked, Zen!” You called and then quickly lowered your voice so your excitement wouldn’t wake up the person next to you. He shifted again onto his back now, nearly pushing you off of the bed. You adjusted yourself accordingly. “I can read the text!”

 

“Excellent. That means we can still converse with you over text.” Jaehee translated for Zen.

 

“Thank god.” You sighed in relief. You really weren’t sure how you could deal with all of these translation issues. You should probably start teaching yourself Korean. You had an app on your phone that might help. Maybe on the computer? You weren’t sure if you had a computer any longer here.

 

“I need to hang up then. We have wasted enough hours here.” Jumin interrupted.

 

“Tell Saeyoung to call me tonight.” Saeran cut before the older man could hang up the phone. “I don’t care how busy either of you two are.”

 

Saeran, at least, deserved that. “I’ll tell him.”  
  
“Good.”

 

“Message us later.” Jaehee said for Yoosung. “All of us.”

 

“I will, Jaehee. I’m sorry this happened.” You hesitated. “We had hoped this wouldn’t be an issue. We honestly thought that I was going to stay forever. I’m so sorry.”

 

“It’s unfortunate, but this is the way things are now. There is no point in regret.” Jumin said.

 

“Mr. Han . . .” Jaehee muttered, exasperated, before she said to you, “He is right, though. We need to work on solving this issue.”

 

“Call me tomorrow.” Jumin commanded one more time. “Have a good night.”

 

“You too. All of you.” You briefly got to hear the others say good night as well before the line went dead. The game’s music began to play for you automatically. You muted the game and instead clicked to your messages. You already had one from Yoosung and Zen, but soon enough three more came in so you had a message from all of your friends. You sat up on the bed carefully, eying your sleeping fiancé, and responded to all of them.

 

 

> **ZEN**
> 
> **I’m so glad you’re both safe! Please tell me this is understandable for you.**
> 
> **I can understand!! ;u;**

 

**Yoosung☆**

 

> **Is everything okay?! Are you and Saeyoung alright?? T-T**
> 
> **We’re fine. Just exhausted. I’m sorry for worrying you OTL**

 

**Saeran**

 

> **This is what you two were discussing earlier.**
> 
> **Yes...sorry we didn’t tell you.**
> 
> **Also yay! You officially have a name in the app!**

 

**Jaehee Kang **

 

> **This is so shocking...I can’t believe this is all a game.**
> 
> **Please don’t take it badly! This doesn’t change who you are**.

 

**Jumin Han**

 

> **As long as you two are safe, then we are fine for now. Keep us updated.**
> 
> **We will, I promise!**

 

You sighed and closed your eyes despite more messages coming in. You didn’t have the energy to respond any longer. Guiltily you informed all of them that you promised to respond later but you needed some sleep. Now that you were no longer running on the awkward high that was nervousness while talking with your friends, you felt your fatigue come back to you. The smell of dinner was drifting through the air and you worried you would have to join everyone to eat soon. You were hungry, but sick too. Great.

 

You placed your phone aside and took the time to get under the covers with Saeyoung. You rolled towards him and startled to see his eyes open and regarding you. You flushed a bit. “Shit, did I wake you?” You whispered.

 

He yawned and gave a shrug before he shifted onto his side to face you. “I’m a light sleeper. Even exhaustion can’t change that.” He reached forward to brush your hair from your eyes as you pulled off your glasses to place at the top of your bed. “You talked with the others?”

 

“Yeah. I took care of explaining everything.”

 

“Great.” He muttered. “How did they handle it?”

 

“Better than expected. But that could just be because I can’t really understand half of them.” You hated not being able to communicate. This language gap was horrible. “I’m able to text them, though. The game still translates that.”

 

“Oh, that’s good.” He sounded curious but too tired to pursue it. “Are you alright?”

 

“I’m just tired.” You confessed, closing your eyes as you laid your head on the pillow. Now that it was there, you definitely didn’t want to lift it again. You stretched your legs towards Saeyoung and he gladly tangled his with yours. Delight bloomed in your chest.

 

“You look it. I meant,” he paused. You opened your eyes to give him a questioning look. He appeared reluctant to say before he gathered himself and asked seriously, “I meant, are you okay with being back here? With your mother?”

 

You had chosen not to really think about it yet. You were happy to see your family, but truthfully you didn’t want to live there anymore. You were used to living by yourself now. Used to the new life you had started. Being thrown back into your old life felt almost like you were in a cage. You didn’t want to live under this roof anymore. You didn’t have the choice now, though.

 

If you lied to him, Saeyoung would know immediately. You were too exhausted to even bother. “No, but I’ll deal with it. Who knows? Maybe she’s better now that I’ve been gone for eight months.” You smiled without any real belief or heart behind it. You didn’t have enough faith to even believe your words, let alone make them convincing.

 

Saeyoung only watched you with an unhappy frown on his face. You would be okay. It had been a while, but you were still used to the stuff your mother tended to put you through. She would probably be a lot nicer while Saeyoung was with you. And you doubted he would put up with her nonsense.

 

Because of course you had told him about your own negative relationship with your mother. It only made sense. He had opened up about his life, so you had opened up about yours. Even now the pressure of the pain and panic still pressed at you. You had been a mess by the end of that conversation. If anyone understood, though, it was Saeyoung. Your mother may not have been as horrible as his bitch of a mother, but yours still abused you in her own way. You could only hope that she would treat you better since you weren’t there for eight months.

 

Saeyoung cupped your cheek and kissed you gently. You gave a small shuddering sigh into the kiss and allowed yourself to relax more. You could handle that when it came up. For now you just wanted to lay in your bed that was too small for two people and take a nap before dinner. You didn’t need to say this out loud as you rested your forehead against his chest briefly before shifting back onto the pillow. His arm returned to your waist as you curled against him. A nap would do you good. You would be able to handle the world better after some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, there will be emotional abuse in this story. I want to give the fair warning now. I'm sorry if that makes anybody uncomfortable. Also I decided to up the rating to Mature because of this as well as because there may be some sexual situations.


	14. Chapter 12

Your mother had woken you and Saeyoung both up with her talking outside of the door to your bedroom. From what you could gather from the middle of the conversation she had come in to let you both know that dinner was ready but had found you both asleep. Your step-father appeared to want to let you both sleep, but your mother had wanted you to join them for dinner considering you had finally come back to her. Neither you nor Saeyoung said anything, instead just watching the closed door to see who on the other side would win. Your step-father managed to convince her and soon the two went away.

 

You relaxed back onto the bed with your shoulder aching from having slept on it for too long. You were still groggy and tired and tempted to go back to sleep. However you knew you should probably wake up so that you could sleep later on. It was becoming quite late already. You turned your face into Saeyoung’s chest and yawned widely.

 

“Did she wake you?” You slurred.

 

“It’s fine.” He assured you. “I’d rather be awake anyway.” He sounded much more alert than you did. His fingers brushed at your hair, and you tilted your head into his touch hoping to coax some petting out of him. More than anything else that would make you happy. You felt his laughter more than heard it. “Can you stop being so cute? It’s distracting.”

 

“No.” You muttered petulantly, but then began to giggle. You couldn’t even fake that for long. “Don’t stop.” You pressed your head to his hand. He continued to run his hand through your hair.

 

“Don’t say things like that.” He murmured after a few moments of telling silence. You swallowed as you caught onto what meaning he was going for. You weren’t attempting to come off that way, but now that he brought it up it was tempting. Unfortunately your body was far too fatigued to even work up a faster heartbeat at the thought. You didn’t want to start anything with your parents around anyway. 

 

Not that you or Saeyoung had done anything like that in . . . quite a while. You were still embarrassed and nervous about sex even though you’d already had it with him. He seemed to be relatively in the same boat, or at least never pressed you for it. You were sure that if you showed more initiative that he would respond in kind. Perhaps he was respecting your boundaries. Which was sweet of him, but you wished that he would take the first step like he had last time. You were too shy to do so even though you craved him.

 

That would be something to think about another time.

 

“Oh right.” You remembered as you pulled your head back from his chest. Pleasantly erotic thoughts lulling you back to sleep aside, you had a message to relay. “Saeran wants you to call him as soon as possible. Sorry, I forgot to mention it before I fell asleep.”

 

Saeyoung’s face darkened with worry as you watched the gears in his head start turning. It seemed that now that his panic attack was over and he’d had some sleep he was already starting on problem-solving. You hoped that you could be of help to him. You contemplated how you would secure a computer. The only one really available was your brother’s and you knew he didn’t give it up easily.

 

“Did he say what for?” He asked after some consideration. You hummed the negative.

 

“He just said for you to call. And Jumin also wants you to call him, but I asked him if he could wait until tomorrow. I figured you wouldn’t want to make Saeran wait, though.”

 

“Thank you.” He pressed a kiss to your forehead before releasing you to sit up with a stretch. You admired him briefly as the temptation to wrap your arms around his waist and drag him back into a cuddle presented itself to you. You resisted. You missed his large bed. He pulled on his glasses and grabbed your phone from the top of the bed before he slipped out of the bed. You continued to lay in it but rolled over to track him as he unlocked your phone and opened the app. The little opening jingle rang through the room. 

 

You watched Saeyoung as he called up his brother. You wanted to say something in the long pause between the phone ringing and Saeran picking up, but you decided against it. Saeyoung met your gaze briefly before he turned his attention away as Saeran’s faint voice was heard through the phone. Saeyoung began to speak in Korean, so you focused more on his facial expressions.

 

Out of everything that had happened, you had a feeling that the brothers being separated again was going to be the hardest thing to handle. Saeyoung and Saeran hadn’t been reunited for very long. It was only a short while ago that Saeran had been deemed stable enough to be around company. And you knew that he was still recovering in general and a lot of that was pushed by Saeyoung being around. Saeran needed to develop trust again, but now this happened.

 

That wasn’t even saying Saeyoung’s side. He finally had his brother back. He had his life together, and now they were separated once more. Saeran was back in danger again as long as the game was able to be deleted. You felt horribly guilty about all of it.

 

Your hand clenched into the blanket on you and you dropped your eyes. You wanted to cry again. This was your fault. You were the reason the brothers were separated once more. Saeyoung should’ve just let you go alone. You would be sad, but it was better than this. Saeran was the one who deserved Saeyoung. Saeyoung deserved to have his brother back.

 

The conversation with the brothers lasted a long while. Saeyoung kept his voice down and repeatedly ran a hand into his hair as he talked. You could tell by the tone of his voice that he was apologizing throughout the conversation. You wondered exactly what they were saying. At least you picked up how to say “sorry” in Korean.

 

It was about ten minutes later that Saeyoung finally sighed and said goodbye. He pulled the phone from his ear and exited out of the app. For a long moment he only stared at the phone. His back was to you so you were unable to see his face. You felt like you were choking. You tried to control yourself.

 

“How did it go?” You finally asked softly.

 

Saeyoung pocketed the phone before dropping to sit on the bed. It squeaked under your combined weight. “About as well as expected.” He admitted. “You took care of most of the explaining already, but Saeran had a few of his own questions.” He didn’t sound like he was altogether there even as he spoke. He was thinking hard about something, you realized. He looked at you. “He mostly wanted to know what our plan is.”

 

“That’s a good question.” You pointed out and decided that this was a conversation that needed to be had while sitting up, and so you sat up. You dragged your legs in to sit cross-legged. “What  _ is _ our plan?”

 

“I don’t know.” He confessed softly, once again running his hand into his hair. It was so fluffy now. You wanted to also run your hand through it. “I’m not even sure where to begin to address this. It hardly even feels real right now.”

 

“I know what you mean.” Part of you felt like if you closed your eyes you would wake up back in Saeyoung’s bed. That you returning home was all a dream. When did the video game world become “your” world in your mind? You didn’t know. You weren’t sure when you stopped really considering your world your home.

 

You tapped your fingers against your leg. “Well, we can brainstorm? Obviously we need to find a way back to the game.”

 

“Do you think that’s possible?” 

 

“It happened once, right? Shouldn’t we find out how it happened?”

 

Saeyoung hummed to himself, closing his eyes and furrowing his brows in thought. “If I can look at the code for the game I might be able to find the source. It has to be a glitch of some sort if it’s not common, which means it has to be something easy to spot. But first I would have to get a hold of the code.”

 

“I can do some research in the fandom to see if there’s anything weird?” You suggested. 

 

“Okay, thank you.” He paused.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“I need a computer so that I can go into your phone and look for the game. But . . . Well, it’s not that I don’t trust myself, but I’m worried about messing with an active game. I don’t want to damage it somehow.” The very thought of it made your heart skip in horror. Saeyoung would be essentially hacking into his world and all that it was. The slightest mistake might corrupt the data. Judging by the grim look on his face he was thinking the same thing.

 

“Wait,” you leaned towards him, placing a hand on his arm. “I remember that I had to create an account in order to start a new game. That should mean that even if this app gets messed up, the data should be fine right?”

 

“That’s possible.” He already sounded more relieved. He granted you a small smile. “But I have to look into the coding to find out more.”

 

“Then that should be the first thing we do. We can’t really proceed without knowing, right? And if we’re lucky, maybe it’s just a matter of flipping a switch on the glitch and we’re back in!”

 

Saeyoung huffed a laugh. “Saeran’s always telling me that I’m the optimistic one, but I think he’s wrong. You’re the one who always seems to find the good in a situation.” He sighed, and the way he gazed so softly at you made fire fill your cheeks. You couldn’t look directly at him. “You’ve always been like a light in my life.”

 

You covered your face. “Nooooo! Noo! Saeyoung stoooop! I can’t handle you saying stuff like that!!” You shook your head, embarrassed and delighted all the same.

 

“I’m not going to hide the truth.” He teased.

 

“You know I get embarrassed every time and  _ that’s _ why you say it!” You accused.

 

“That’s only half the reason.” He pulled your hands away from your face and you suddenly found him very close to you. He took in your bright red face and only smiled more. “I definitely wasn’t lying.”

 

“I know.” You murmured because you were unable to raise your voice any higher. When he kissed you, you felt as if your heart might explode. You weren’t good with such open affection. Especially when it was so sincere like you knew his was. It only made you wrap your arms around his neck tightly and sigh with pleasure as you two kissed and soaked in each other’s presences. 

 

You still felt horribly guilty about the situation, but the selfish part of you wondered if maybe it was okay that Saeyoung had come with you. Because at least that meant that you got to have moments like this. With the way his tongue moved against yours and the warmth of your lover’s body to yours. Your chest swelled with a familiar gooey bubble that you pushed away despite your hands shyly fingering the hem of his shirt. If they slipped under it a bit to become electrified by the skin you felt, well that wasn’t your fault. They were sneaky bastards. And Saeyoung wasn’t complaining.

* * *

Later, after you both were thoroughly kissed, a little too worked up, and hungry, you both finally revealed yourselves again to the family. The house had calmed down since you were last out among them. Dalton was on his laptop with his headphones on -it was nice to see that that never changed even in eight months- while your mother was smoking in the laundry room and James was in the bedroom. 

 

You had a feeling your mother would try to come out if she heard you speaking and you were feeling far too playful to deal with the serious quite yet. You were in a better mood now, so you turned to Saeyoung and stopped him before you both entered the kitchen, hunching down secretively.

 

“I just received a new assignment, Agent 707.” You told him in a hushed voice. Saeyoung’s eyes sparkled as he immediately switched modes. Even his voice became that adorable higher pitch when he was his silly 707 persona. 

 

“What is it, Agent 606?” He asked. “We haven’t received a group mission in many months!”

 

You bit back a giggle. When had you become Saeyoung’s binary girlfriend? “I know. I fear we may have grown rusty!” You ran a finger down your cheek like it was a tear. 

 

Seven gasped. “How could you think that? We’re still the best around! But what’s the mission~?”

 

“We have to retrieve our dinner as silently as possible!”

 

“What are you two doing?” Dalton asked, raising an eyebrow as he turned his attention from his computer screen to you both. You shushed him.

 

“We’ve been compromised!” Seven hissed. “Hurry!” He grabbed your hand and took quick and exaggerated steps around the corner into the kitchen. You tried hard not to giggle as you mimicked his long steps. You both looked ridiculous trying to out-exaggerate each other. You got out the dishes you both needed with as much silence as possible, but Seven gasped again and startled you. He was staring at the floor. You looked too to spy Matilda gazing at you both. She murred as she noticed your attention.

 

“What tight security!” Seven whispered. “I can’t resist!” He was already moving towards the cat.

 

“Seven, no! Think of the mission!” You cried in a hushed tone.

 

“I can’t! I must! I have to-!” He scooped Matilda up and cuddled her. He was holding her improperly because he wasn’t supporting her legs. You would’ve corrected him, but the game was too strong. 

 

“Agent down! I can’t believe the defense in this building! Seven, I’m so sorry. I-I must complete the mission!” You looked as distraught as you could, turning away from him. Seven fell to his knees and rubbed his face against Matilda, who began to struggle from being handled in such a way.

 

“Do what you must! Leave me behind! I love you! Ack!!” With that, he died. You let out a sob and turned to the stove to begin scooping dinner onto both of your plates. It was a familiar meal of chicken parmesan (frozen and heated in the oven), rice, and peas. You took a moment to think about how different this meal was from the meals you had eaten with Saeyoung in the past. The diets of Koreans didn’t really stem around the same stuff that you always ate at your house. It was a little surreal.

 

Finally you turned back to your fiancé to find him climbing back to his feet. You had yet to hear your mother call for you, so you deemed the mission a success. Considering you two weren’t the sneakiest after getting caught up in playing and that the laundry room shared a wall with the kitchen, it was great that your mother hadn’t noticed. You held up the plates to show your success before you both retreated back into the living room. You set the plates down at the coffee table.

 

“We’re not eating at the table?” Saeyoung asked as he dropped the playful persona.

 

“I’m not sure anyone eats at the table anymore.” You told him. “Want something to drink?”

 

“I’m fine.” Saeyoung glanced at the table still appearing confused, but accepted it as he sat down. 

 

“Dalton, can we borrow your computer?”

 

“What for?” Dalton asked. You could already tell he would say no. 

 

“Do you want the truth?” Saeyoung interrupted you before you could respond. 

 

“Well yeah.” 

 

“I plan to use your computer to hack into some banks and make some money.” He grinned. Dalton seemed surprised, but also interested. You looked at Saeyoung in confusion. Wasn’t he just going to look into the code of the game? 

 

“Wait, really? Are you serious?”

 

“He legitimately is the best hacker.” You added as you scooped up some of your peas to eat. “One of the main plot points of the game was the fact that he was part of a spy agency.”

 

“No fucking way.” Dalton looked at you as if you were spouting bullshit. You wouldn’t have believed it either.

 

“She’s not lying. But seriously, I do need a computer. We need to make some money somehow and I have a feeling she doesn’t have a job anymore after eight months of being gone. Can I please use your computer?” Saeyoung asked.

 

“You don’t have to be polite to him, it’s okay.” You joked.

 

“Rude.” Dalton responded bluntly before pulling his headphones from his computer and lifting it. It was definitely your old computer judging by the bad screen, but at least the keyboard on this one worked. You were surprised at how well it had held up all of this time. Saeyoung took the laptop and placed it in front of him. He made sure to find the charger and plug it in first as he frowned. 

 

“Are you really going to steal money?” You asked.

 

“I didn’t exactly want to get you caught up in anything illegal ever again, but I don’t really have that luxury here.” He sighed. “I forgot what it was like not to have money, and you’ve already told me before that your family had never had that much money in the first place. So I’ll just borrow some funds. It won’t be the first time I’ve done it. You should still have a bank account, right?”

 

You understood then that this was actually about to happen. But why did you need money? You asked him.

 

“Well, I’ll need to buy a different computer. One that I can get to work on right away since I’m sure your brother doesn’t want me hanging onto his. And I need to make sure it’s unused. I’m already wary about having to use this computer, but I’ll work to cover my tracks before I risk any of you. Sorry Dalton, but I’ll need this for a while.” Saeyoung ate only a little bit of his food before his fingers began to fly across the keyboard. You were admittedly thrilled to see him working again. It was mesmerizing. 

 

“Wait, seriously? I’m going to need my computer.” Dalton protested.

 

“I’ll work through the night so hopefully you’ll have it by the morning.” Saeyoung offered. “I don’t really need anymore sleep at the moment anyway. Babe, I’m gonna need your bank account and everything.”

 

“So you’re going to buy a new computer?” You asked. “A really good one?”

 

“Yes.”

 

You supposed that you should’ve thought about that. When had Saeyoung come up with that plan? It made sense, though. Neither of you wanted to risk your game at all. And Dalton’s computer was not the most protected thing in the world. It would take Saeyoung a long while to secure a new computer and supe it up so that he could get started on messing with the game. That meant you both would be there for a while. You hoped that Saeyoung was okay with that.

 

“If you’re going to get money, then we should also buy some clothes.” You needed to plan ahead. You should’ve realized that this would be a bit of a long-term thing. “You can’t stay in those clothes for the entire time we’re here. Also maybe we could get a bigger bed? Although it would have to be on the floor.”

 

“He could just sleep on the air mattress.” Dalton suggested.

 

“I’m fine with a futon too.” Saeyoung added. “I’ve slept in worse conditions.”

 

“I’m not letting you sleep on the floor! We’ll find something.” You never let people sleep on the floor if you could help it. Sleeping on the floor sucked. Plus you had no idea where the futon was anymore.

 

“Alright, alright. Be stubborn.” He teased, shooting you a distracted smile. You didn’t want to bother him anymore. 

 

“I’m going to get started on my research too. Maybe look around the app a bit more to see if I can find anything.” Also text the others. And message your friends. You still had the chat on your phone, you believed. You also needed to contact your father. God, so much to do . . .

 

You decided to go on Tumblr.


	15. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School is over! But my OCs are once again digging at my brain ahhhhhhhh

Something that you realized about missing and living in a game for a long time: a _lot_ of shit happens with both the internet and the world that you had no clue about. For example, the _Mystic Messenger_ fandom had become a lot bigger in comparison of when you had first started playing. But then again it had been in the very new stages in terms of the English fans. There were also a ton of memes you didn’t understand circulating your Tumblr. You were glad your account hadn’t been deleted. You still hated the mobile version of it on your phone with a passion, though.

 

You had learned a number of things while on your trip through Tumblr: 1. Saeyoung was definitely the most popular character. This was understandable. Apparently his route was the True End. You were damn lucky that you managed to end up on the proper path on your first try.

 

2\. MC had changed her form from when you last saw her. It startled you to find she really _did_ look more like you. This wasn’t a fluke. You just didn’t understand how that was possible. The game’s MC had looked distinctly different from you. Had you somehow changed the game? Or had the game adjusted to match you? Why did everyone’s games sudden match you then? It was disturbing to think about.

 

3\. There were so many ships. Not as bad as you had seen in some of your older fandoms, but still more than you were expecting. The Yoosung/Seven ship in particular seemed to be more and more popular in recent times. It had you grinning but also feeling a bit jealous. You could see how that ship would occur in the minds of fans, but you knew Yoosung too well to think he would ever date Saeyoung. No matter how much Saeyoung teased him.

 

Actually, that was a pretty interesting question. You turned to Saeyoung who had yet to look away from the computer. It was later now. Your mother had yet to come out of the laundry room, but that wasn’t abnormal. Knowing her she had probably fallen asleep there. All the better for you. Dalton had been watching shows on Netflix (it was damn lucky for him that you had enough money in your bank account that Netflix could be paid for each month) and James had gone off to work. Your dog had already sniffed suspiciously at Saeyoung and the cats had hovered around the newcomer in the house. Socks had come out of hiding to slink over to the cat tower in the living room and watch everything nervously. You still had yet to see Kyoko.

 

“Saeyoung?” You called him softly. You didn’t want to break his concentration if you could help it. You knew he was working as hard as he could. His dinner was only a little eaten. It would be cold by now. You would have to put it in the microwave for him.

 

He hummed distractedly. That was enough for you.

 

“Would you date Yoosung if you had the chance?”

 

Saeyoung’s fingers spazzed slightly in shock. He cursed once and backspaced before looking at you with confusion. “What? Why are you asking?”

 

You waved your phone a little. “You two are being shipped. I was curious.”

 

“‘Shipped’?”

 

“People like to think of you like a couple.”

 

Saeyoung only stared at the phone and the picture of him and Yoosung on it. You could see that his mind was trying to process it. You hoped it wouldn’t bother him too much. This was a real person, not a character in a game anymore. “Is that, uh, one of the endings in the game?” He asked slowly.

 

Was it? You looked at your phone. “I don’t think so? I think it’s just a ship.”

 

“Uhh . . .”

 

Dalton huffed a laugh. “Is that really a good thing to ask? You’re really gonna make Saeyoung deal with all of the gay ships right off the bat?”

 

“To be fair, he’s bisexual.” You pointed out.

 

“I’d rather not deal with labels.” Saeyoung interrupted. “But yeah, she’s not wrong. I’m not against dating guys if they line up with my personality.” He reached out and took the phone from you. The picture itself was fluffy at least. He rubbed his eyes and took a breath.

 

“Are you alright?” You were worried now. Maybe this question wasn’t such a great idea. You did have a tendency to stick your foot in your mouth at inopportune times.

 

“I’m fine. I just have to . . . give me a minute to process this. Sometimes I forget that you’re not the only person who played the game.” He finally returned his eyes back to the phone. “Would I date Yoosung?” He hummed, rolling the idea in his mind. “Probably not. He’s fun to play with and mess with, but I don’t know. I don’t think I would be able to really have a deeper connection with him.” He handed the phone back to you and gave you a rueful smile. “I can’t even tell him what happened with Rika.”

 

That was right. You had forgotten about that in the time that had passed. Yoosung and Zen still didn’t know the truth about what happened with Mint Eye. They were never supposed to find out. You couldn’t imagine keeping such a secret from your lover. You would always be nervous that something would give it away.

 

“That’s true.” You admitted. “But what if it was Yoosung who had gone with you to Mint Eye instead of me?”

 

“Even then. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to open up to him. _You_ were stubborn and refused to leave me alone even when I wasn’t at my best. Yoosung would’ve caved and left me alone. He’s too nice and respectful of my choices.”

 

“Why do I feel like you insulted me even though you used such a warm tone?” Why was it that you felt so pleased even though you were pretty sure he just called you stubborn and rude in a roundabout way?

 

Saeyoung only laughed.

 

“Who’s Rika?” Dalton asked, leaning forward on the arm of his chair. You looked at him and then met Saeyoung’s eyes in a silent question. Despite how much your family had drilled you earlier, neither of you had really explained the plot of the game and all that you had gone through. You didn’t feel comfortable with explaining how you had been in danger. Most of the questions had at least centered on where you had been, who Saeyoung was, what your relationship with him was, and the time you had spent in the game. The plot of the game had been a mystery that you had purposely bypassed.

 

But Dalton was someone you trusted. It was now just a matter of if Saeyoung was okay with you discussing this with your brother. Saeyoung only stared back at you, waiting for you to make the decision. It had been a long time. You thought it would be okay for Dalton to know. So you told your brother the plot of the game and what all had occurred while you had been gone. He stayed mostly quiet even when you explained the bomb and the cult and the situation with Saeyoung’s brother. You made sure to tell him that things were still sensitive with Saeran too. By the time you had finished your mouth was dry and Saeyoung had long since returned to typing on the computer again.

 

Dalton’s eyebrows were raised and finally he said, “Wow. You, uh, you weren’t kidding about it being crazy.”

 

“You’re telling me.” You responded.

 

“What kind of person thinks using a bomb to protect stuff is a good idea? Especially in a public place?”

 

“You would think I would’ve questioned that a lot more than I did.” Saeyoung said, somewhat petulant. “And yes, I know it’s stupid. Realized way too late how dangerous it was.”

 

“I’m still really glad you saved me.” You added, scooting over on the couch to press your leg to his shoulder.

 

“I’m glad I made it in time.” He said softly.

 

You switched tabs on your phone to instead go to TVTropes knowing you would find out a lot of the information from the game there. You needed to look up the different endings. You were scared to do so. You didn’t doubt that there were Bad Ends. There had to be. All dating sim games did. It made you nervous.

 

Nonetheless you looked into it. You took your time to read through all of the endings starting with your friends who you didn’t end up with. It was surreal to hear how MC was treated. You could easily imagine how dating Zen would go considering how flirtatious he was, but anyone else in the RFA? Hard to imagine. Even Jaehee really had been a dateable character! Well, sort of. Everything ended in “friendship” but you could read between the lines well enough. And you knew Jaehee personally, after all.

 

You never imagined what kind of relationship you could have possibly had with Jumin. Seeing the different responses you could’ve given you knew it would’ve been practically impossible for you to end up with him. You could still remember the chatrooms you had been in with both him and Saeyoung. How could you have possibly brought yourself to not play along with and possibly ever _berate_ Saeyoung when he had been his adorable 707 persona? It was impossible. Impossible!

 

But Yoosung . . . Oh, you were so glad you didn’t end up with him if only to spare him from the pain he must have gone through. You had gasped and covered your mouth at the sight of him at the RFA party with the bandage over his eye. You could hardly believe he had ruined his eye when he had been with Saeyoung to go to Mint Eye’s base. He would’ve actually gone and helped. And he would’ve ended up injured in the process. You knew Saeyoung wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself if such a scenario had occurred.

 

Saeyoung had turned to you at the sound of your gasp. You had disturbed him again. You tried to wave off his concern, but your expressive face must have given you away. You could never really hide your emotions, and especially not from him. He abandoned the computer to pull himself up to sit on the couch next to you.

 

“What happened?” He asked, leaning over to look. You automatically hid the phone a bit more, not wanting to hurt him anymore than he was. Your poor lover had already had a panic attack once. You really didn’t want to give him any more stress. “Come on~ show me.” He leaned closer to you, reaching for the phone.

 

You let your eyes drop. “I’m looking up different endings.” You confessed to him. He paused. “I haven’t even gotten to your endings, Saeyoung, and this game is ruining my life.”

 

“How so?”

 

You showed him the picture of Yoosung and explained what happens in that ending. Saeyoung’s face was carefully blank like it usually was when he was unhappy with what had just happened but didn’t want to show it. “And that’s the true end for his route.” You said quietly. “He’s supposed to lose his eye. Later on he does get corrective surgery to fix it but . . .” But in a different universe, Saeran had caused Yoosung to lose his eye.

 

“What about the other endings?” Saeyoung prompted after a moment of hesitation.

 

“They’re worse.” You whispered. “I don’t think you want to know. I’m not sure I want to tell you.”

 

Saeyoung watched you. He still had you partially trapped between his arms as he had been leaning over you to look at the phone. You felt his fists curl against the seat beside your legs as he frowned in thought. Finally he sighed and dropped his head.

 

“If you’re saying that, you’re probably right. I’m still not in the right state of mind to hear any more bad news.”

 

“I know.” You told him. Even now you could feel that bit of a disconnect that you usually had when you weren’t directly facing a problem. These people you were your friends but at the same time they weren’t. They were characters in a game. It was a confusing sensation. They were a different version of your friends. Of your fiancé.

 

You pressed the back button on your phone and then gazed down at 707’s name. The route endings would be just through that link. Were you prepared to look at them? You already knew of a couple of the different fates of different MCs, but did you really want to know what could’ve happened to you? Even knowing that there were Bad Romance endings only made it all the worse. Those would be more likely to have happened to you than any of the others. If Saeyoung had loved you any less . . .

 

Your name was called and a hand touched your face. How long had you been zoning out? It was long enough that Saeyoung was giving you a concerned look. You could see the darkness under his eyes already. You realized you were pretty exhausted, actually. Dalton wasn’t even in the room anymore. He must have gone to bed already. Your skin was chilled from having been sitting in one place for so long.

 

“What are you thinking about?” Saeyoung asked. You could hear the tug on the accent of his words. For some reason it focused you a bit more. Maybe you needed more sleep than you thought. Maybe it was masochism to push yourself to keep reading these terrible endings. But you were curious. So dreadfully curious. You needed to know what could’ve happened.

 

“I need to read the other endings for your route.” You confessed to him. “But I’m scared.”

 

“Then don’t read them.” He said simply, as if it was that easy of a choice.

 

“I want to know.” You protested, glancing at your phone. It had gone dark in the time you had been thinking.

 

“Sometimes it’s better not to know. You can’t take away the information once it’s there.” You of course knew he was speaking from experience. You thought of V’s body as it hit the ground. The shriek Rika gave. The look of horror that had punched itself onto Saeyoung’s face when he first realized who Unknown was.

 

“I’d rather know.” You were determined in that sense. It might fuck you up, but you needed to know. You needed to know just in case. “What if somehow the game restarts? What if I need to make you fall in love with me all over again? What if I need to know what other endings there are so I can avoid them?”

 

Saeyoung huffed a laugh of sorts, but it didn’t sound like he was amused. It didn’t even sound like a scoff. It was some sort of exclamation but you couldn’t tell of what. “You did just fine the first time, didn’t you?”

 

“Yeah, but I have no idea what I did right!” You cried. Everything could’ve gone _so wrong_. You had no idea how the hell you got engaged in the first place. Were you still in shock? Most days you still couldn’t believe you were dating someone and it had already been eight months. Maybe if you had to start the game again then Saeyoung would only find you annoying. You certainly could see that happening. It would be a miracle if he wanted to stay married to you, you thought.

 

“You were you. That’s what you did right.”

 

You dropped your face into your hands, ignoring how your glasses dug into your nose. “You’re not helping.” You grumbled. You had to fight off the wave of self-loathing that was building in you. You shook your head quickly and refused to let those thoughts continue. You had something even more demented to be dealing with at the moment. “I’m going to read this now.”

 

Saeyoung gave you a look you were familiar with. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to your sketchy self-confidence. It came and went faster than you could blink most of the time. He would always give you the same look as if you were being silly. It both reassured you and did absolutely nothing to change how you felt at the same time. He didn’t seem pleased with you once again dodging the topic, but you had better things to do with yourself than deal with your emotions.

 

“Then let me read it with you.” He said.

 

“Didn’t we just agree a moment ago that you wouldn’t like it and that you would rather not deal with more stress?”

 

“This is different. This is my story. _Our_ story.” He paused and you found one of his own moments of self-loathing. They were rarer nowadays considering Saeran was healing and Saeyoung was no longer in a toxic environment, but he hadn’t come out any less unscathed from the bullshit he went through in his life than you did. “You want to know what you could possibly do to make things go wrong . . . but I don’t doubt that there are things in there that are my fault as well. I’d rather know than imagine it.”

 

You watched him for a few moments, feeling like utter shit at his pain. He wasn’t supposed to ever feel like that again. You would rather be the stupid one. You couldn’t help your rueful smile as you poked his cheek and then cupped it when you had his attention. “Why are we both so masochistic?” You asked.

 

“I prefer being a little sadistic, actually.” There. There was that teasing grin you loved. You returned it, your tone of voice taking on a playful lilt.

 

“That just makes you a switch~” You scooted closer to him, prompting him to sit properly beside you. He shifted obediently and gave you a quick kiss to your lips as he did so. It never failed to entertain you a little bit whenever his frames hit yours. His entire side pressed against you as he leaned to read your phone as well. The playfulness died down in the wake of what you both would look at.

 

You clicked on the 707 Endings link.


	16. Interlude 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've noticed in previous chapters that for whatever reason there's this weird gap between the e's in fiancée and I'm not sure why. I've been attempting to fix it, but it just stays. So I'm sorry for that weirdness.

Saeyoung had handled finding out about the bad paths his life could have taken easier than he had expected to, but it still had an impact on him. His fiancée seemed to be taking it a bit harder than him judging by her expression, but Saeyoung mostly felt numb to it. He was reading about possibilities that -while he was glad didn’t happen- didn’t affect him. It was too distant for him to contemplate. 

 

He couldn’t imagine that his fiancée would ever go with Unknown anywhere, first of all, so that ending didn’t particularly bother him (although the idea of not making it in time to help her definitely hurt). Even finding out about Saeran capturing him to torture him and Saeran killing Saeyoung before killing himself had not been enough to really move him (even if those ideas were enough to make his blood run cold). No, the ending that got him the most was the one where MC could convince him to just . . . abandon everything and leave. Willfully ignore the situation the RFA and Saeran were in and just run away with MC. Lie to himself to give himself a false sense of happiness. A hollow victory.

  
It hurt him the most because he could see himself doing that. Every other ending relied on the choices of others. This one relied only on Saeyoung’s decision. 

 

That could have been him. If his fiancée had pushed him enough . . . had convinced him . . . Saeyoung would’ve abandoned his life for her. He could easily see it.

 

There was an extended quiet that hung between the two of them after they finished reading the endings. She glanced at Saeyoung, lips pursed and her eyebrows furrowed. She took a shaky breath and opened her mouth to apologize to him.

 

“It’s alright.” He assured her, squeezing the hand he still held with his own. “I just . . .” He swallowed.

 

“No, I get it.” She didn’t need him to finish his words. She placed aside her phone and shifted to rest her head against his shoulder. The two of them were basically the same height so she needed to slouch some to accomplish this. That must hurt her back, he thought. “Is it messed up to say that some of those actually aren’t the worst endings I’ve read tonight?” She asked softly.

 

Saeyoung couldn’t even imagine how it could get worse than torture or murder-suicide. He was almost afraid to find out. It was bad enough that Yoosung could have lost one of his eyes. Saeyoung wondered how he would have handled that ending. He didn’t want to imagine how he would handle the news of Saeran and V all on his own without his fiancée to ground him.

 

“Pretty messed up.” He admitted.

 

“Fuck.”

 

That brought a smile to his lips. One thing he learned about her very quickly once she had become comfortable with him was that she had a terrible mouth on her. It had been hilarious to discover her different levels of reservation towards people. The more comfortable she was with a person, the more she cursed. She did it so frequently now around him that it was basically verbal tic. It was funnier to hear it in her native language.

 

He kissed her hair with a quick sigh and then somewhat reluctantly slipped away from her. She watched him curiously with the sadness still lingering. He could see her silent worry on her face. Saeyoung needed to get back to his work (he had managed to secure the funds but now he just needed to make sure his electronic tracks were covered) but he felt the urge to call his brother. He needed to reassure himself that Saeran was safe and no longer part of Mint Eye.

 

“I’ll be back.” He promised her as he picked up her phone. “You should consider going to bed.” It was extremely late.

 

“It’s not like I have work or school in the morning.” She told him wryly with a small smile before it dropped again. “Are you alright?”

 

“I’m fine. I’m going to call Saeran.”

 

“Oh. Okay.”

 

Saeyoung left her then and walked out to the door. He could smell the cigarette smoke coming from the laundry room. He couldn’t recall his soon-to-be mother-in-law ever leaving the room since he had been out of the bedroom. How long did she like to spend in there? 

 

He quietly opened the front door and exited out into the humidity of the night. He shuddered a little at the sensation. He wasn’t used to it being this muggy where he lived. His house, being that it was underground, stayed cooler longer than the rest of the country. Just by the scent in the air and the absence of traffic noises Saeyoung could tell he was in an entirely new place.

 

His lover’s name was called by her mother and caught his attention. “Where are you going this late?” She asked.

 

“It’s not her.” He corrected, automatically switching to polite tone. “I’m sorry. I’m just going to make a phone call.”

 

“Oh, Saeyoung!” She still didn’t pronounce his name 100% correct, but Saeyoung wouldn’t fault her. It had taken his fiancée a couple of times to get down too. “I didn’t realize it was you. When did you wake up?”

 

“Not too long ago.” He lied smoothly. “I’m surprised we slept so long.”

 

“Well, you two did experience something rather traumatic. It’s good you’re sleeping it off now instead of later. I’m sure your internal clock must be thrown off by the time difference!”

 

He decided not to tell her that the timing -odd as it was- was exactly the same as it was in the game. And that he slept odd hours anyway. This was nothing new to him. He wasn’t even physically tired. He was only emotionally exhausted still. He wouldn’t mind sleeping longer, but he wanted to finish up on Dalton’s computer and search for a new computer to put on overnight shipping right away. Then he could finally rest.

 

He briefly allowed himself to picture curling up next to his fiancée again on her bed. It was small, but that just meant she had to cuddle with him. Seeing now where she lived from he finally understood her aversion to heat. Luckily she had a window unit, she had said, so maybe her mind might change. He itched to pull her back into his arms even though she squirmed. (Or maybe, rather, that was why he liked to grab her  _ because _ she squirmed. It was so funny and cute to see her shy.)

 

“It is certainly a little strange.” Saeyoung agreed before he could let his mind wander too much. 

 

“You don’t have to speak so formally, you know.” She pointed out, laughing a little. 

 

Saeyoung felt odd talking to her through the small open window that led to the laundry room. He couldn’t even see her. “Sorry, can’t help it.” He tried to slide back into his informal 707 persona, but at the moment it was difficult. He didn’t really want to speak right now. He wanted to call his brother and check on him. “Anyway, I gotta go make a phone call. I’ll be back in a bit.” He fled before he slipped up. 

 

He was still nervous around Josephine (and God, it felt weird to call her by her first name) as he tried to gauge her. He knew the stories and frustrations that his fiancée had told him about her mother, but she hadn’t shown any of that yet. He supposed once equilibrium returned he may start to see the actual personality of Josephine, so he would give it time. He was pretty good at reading people due to the nature of his old job. He would make his own impressions later.

 

He walked down the driveway, wincing at the unpaved and rocky texture against his soft soles, and sat himself on a wall a decent distance away from the house. He called up Saeran right away, ignoring the rest of the app and the opening jingle and picture, and pressed the phone to his ear. Already he ached from not having Saeran around. That was the worst part, he decided. He had barely had any time with his brother and already they were separated. 

 

Saeran picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”

 

Saeyoung automatically switched back to his native language, biting back the sigh of relief in his throat, “Hey, it’s Saeyoung.”

 

“Obviously.” Saeran paused. He always had gaps between his sentences because he was still hesitant to talk. Saeyoung was still working on bringing him out of his shell. It was a work in progress. Saeyoung wished that he was still there to help. “. . . Has something happened?”

 

Earlier Saeran had already taken the news of the game fairly well. Or, at least, Saeyoung didn’t think he had freaked out. He wasn’t happy, but then again nobody would be happy to find out their life was a game. Especially if said game dictated that the brothers would have to go through their multiple hells. Saeyoung was reluctant to bring it up again.

 

“I wanted to make sure you were okay.” He finally said, feeling somewhat lame about it. Saeran would surely see through his half-truth. 

 

“What happened?” Saeran demanded instead.

 

“Just.” He stopped, considering his words, and then he continued, “Just . . . read up on ‘what-ifs’ that could have occurred.”

 

“Shouldn’t you be working?”

 

“Yeah.” He should be. He shouldn’t be so easily distracted. His fiancée always found ways to distract him. That was what had gotten him into so much trouble during the game in the first place. She was very distracting. Curiosity really does kill the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. This particular information wasn’t very satisfying though. 

 

Saeran sighed and neither brother spoke for a long period of time. Saeyoung was used to this. Saeran didn’t contribute much towards conversation and if Saeyoung wasn’t feeling up to chattering his brother’s ear off, silence usually fell between them. It didn’t feel awkward, but it felt heavy to him. He missed Saeran already, he realized. He didn’t like only talking on the phone. He wanted to keep an eye on his brother to make sure he was okay.

 

He had to know. “How are you handling the game thing?” They had this conversation not too long ago already, but it had been a number of hours. The fact that Saeran was awake meant he wasn’t going to get any sleep anytime soon. He was probably trying to do his own research.

 

“Whatever.” Saeran muttered. “I don’t care about that.” 

 

“I care about getting you back” was left unsaid, but Saeyoung heard it anyway.

 

“I’ve secured funds and I’m ordering the computer tonight. I can start looking at the code by this time tomorrow.” Saeyoung changed the subject. “We’re also looking into the fandom to see if there have been other word about strange things happening.” 

 

“. . . ‘Fandom’?”

 

“The, uh, fans of the game. The players.”

 

“Oh.” He paused. “What else are you planning?”

 

Saeyoung thought about it and couldn’t help his wry smile. “I’m probably going to be forced to go shopping for clothes tomorrow.”

 

“The horror.”

 

“I know~!” He laughed mostly because he knew his whole family tended to find reasons not to shop. It was just so boring! Especially if they would have to find a mattress to buy as well. “Anything from your end?”

 

“No. There’s nothing. Have you spoken with any of the others?”

 

“Not yet. I’ll have to in a few hours, though.” It was so late that it was early morning. Soon enough the sun would begin rising. He wasn’t looking forward to having to do that. Jumin would not be happy. Saeyoung could already see the light flashing on the phone for messages. He would have to talk to everyone eventually.

 

“Saeyoung.” Saeran interrupted Saeyoung’s thoughts. He spoke slowly, measuring his words against his thoughts, “See if you are able to transfer the game’s data to the computer. If the app is similar to the one you made-”

 

“-then maybe I can use the app on the computer again!” Saeyoung finished with a gasp of realization. Why hadn’t they thought of that earlier? It might not be possible, but it was a worth a shot. He has to look into the code anyway and it would be much easier if he could somehow transfer the game straight over onto the computer. And if, after all, everyone could still call even though the game was technically ‘over’, then did that mean Saeyoung would be able to mess with the chatroom more? It would be useful if he could set up some kind of video calling feature. Or alter the code so that everyone could just plug their phones to their computers and they could use it like Saeyoung was.

 

It was worth a shot.

 

“God, good idea Saeran!” Saeyoung cried. He was more energized by the plan of action. He didn’t know if it would work or not, but it was better than nothing. He would have to look at the code either way. It would be nice if he could make it so that he could talk to everyone on the computer instead of risking the cell phone anyway. It would be much safer on his computer once he was done with it. 

 

“If you do manage it,” Saeran sounded pleased even if he didn’t say it out loud, “then see if you can send me any of the data.”

 

“Yeah, of course. In the meantime, try to get some sleep. And take care of my babies.”

 

Saeran scoffed. He didn’t bother to say goodbye before he hung up. Saeyoung shot the phone a shocked look before he pocketed the device. That was just like Saeran. He would call him again later. 

 

In the meantime, Saeyoung went back to the house. The light was off in the laundry room now. When he opened the door, the dog began to bark. Saeyoung jumped and rushed to shush the little creature as it ran out into the kitchen. The dog only continued to bark, though, until his fiancée poked her head out of the bedroom and hissed at the dog to shut up. Finally the dog hushed with a bit more grumbling before retreating back into the master bedroom where Josephine no doubt was. Saeyoung sighed.

 

“Were you asleep?” He asked his lover as she approached him. She yawned but shook her head. 

 

“Not yet. You weren’t gone too long. Are you alright?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Better than fine, actually.” The horror from before had faded, replaced with determination. He cupped her jaw briefly and gave her an excited peck on the lips. “Go back to bed. I’m going to finish up here and then I’ll join you.”

 

“What are you so excited about?” She asked instead, grabbing the back of his shirt as he turned to go back to working on the computer. He could hear the fan going loudly on it. He would make sure to buy high grade coolers for his computer. Maybe computer _ s _ . He missed his set up back at his house. Unfortunately the small house here wouldn’t have enough room for him to have the setup he would’ve preferred. 

 

“Saeran thought of a pretty good idea and I really want to get started on it. Too bad I have to wait until my computer . . .  _ s _ come in. Boooo~”

 

“More than one now?” She asked, sounding a little excited. “How much money did you steal, Saeyoung?”

 

Saeyoung sent her a look that made her laugh, He couldn’t help his own responding grin. It would be better if she didn’t know, although he was sure she could access her own bank account. The real question was “where did he get the money from” but he knew she was too smart to ask him that. He wouldn’t tell her anyway. 

 

“Can you get me a computer too?” She asked. “It doesn’t need to be as awesome as yours or anything, but I’d like one as well. Playing on my phone for all of this stuff takes forever.”

 

“Sure. Tomorrow I’ll order it for you after you get some sleep.”

 

“It’s already tomorrow.” She pointed out.

 

He ignored that. “You need to get some more sleep. I got more than you.”

 

“Aw, but you made me so used to sleeping with you that now the bed is lonely.” She pouted playfully, but her words had lightning zipping down Saeyoung’s spine and right into his gut. She didn’t know how much her words affected him. There were days he wanted to tackle her onto his bed and ravish her. Those were the days that he recalled how her breath had felt on his stomach. Or the way her nails had dug into his shoulders as he had pressed into her. He could still recall how she had looked spread out beneath him. It set his blood on fire.

 

Now wasn’t the time to think of those things no matter how tempting they were. He needed to finish up his job. Besides, she hadn’t really shown any inclination to do anything else like that. He knew it was nerves, but he was hesitant to cross over any lines that might upset her. If he had time, then he wanted to try to test out his boundaries with her again sometime soon. Hopefully soon. He could use a stress reliever. 

 

He let none of this show on his face and instead poked her nose with a smile. “I’ll join you later when I finish here. This is priority.”

 

She watched him for a stretched out moment, clearly thinking of something. She was so obvious to read once he got the hang of it. That shy look he was familiar with was back, but he noticed the heat too. He viciously fought down the arousal that curled in his stomach at the sight. Not now! He had things to do!

 

Nevertheless his body responded without his brain’s approval and kissed her. She immediately wrapped her arms around his neck with a sigh. He cursed himself and his thoughts and this timing. Her timing had never been spectacular.

 

He pulled away from her reluctantly, gently pushing her back. “Later.” He murmured. “Later.”

 

“Sorry.” He didn’t like that she apologized so automatically. He did like the breathiness in her tone, though. “Bad timing.”

 

“Give a guy some warning.” He kissed her again once before stepping away from her. Priorities, Saeyoung! You have priorities!

 

He always seemed to have issues with prioritizing when it came to her.

 

“I wish I could give myself a warning.” She admitted ruefully, allowing him to step away from her. She shrugged and smiled. “I guess I’ll go- uh.” She cut herself off abruptly, becoming flustered as she realized what she had been about to admit. Saeyoung stared at her.

 

“You’re not helping.”

 

“Whoops, haha, look at the time! Where’s my foot? Oh, in my mouth. I’ll just, uh, yeah.” She rambled before retreating back to the bedroom. Saeyoung couldn’t help his laugh of disbelief. She was ridiculous. Absolutely hilarious! God, he was so in love with her.

 

Reluctantly -because half of him wanted to chase her into the bedroom and onto the bed to see exactly what she had been planning on doing without him- he turned back to Dalton’s computer. He sat down and pulled the hot device onto his thighs as Matilda jumped up onto the couch next to him. She curled up against him purring. Saeyoung spared a hand to distractedly pet her. He would need to get himself back into the mindset. It would be difficult to drag his thoughts back from his silly fiancée, but the motivation of finishing so he could join her was strong. 

  
He got to work trying to cover his cyber tracks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though this story is rated mature, I've been hesitant on if I should include any actual sexual stuff in here. I know I keep hinting at it, but I also don't want to just, like shoehorn sex into here unless I feel like it flows well or that the characters would really just go for it. I'd like opinions on this if possible. In the end I will do what I feel is right as a writer, but I value opinions too. Lmk please!


	17. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully no letters are awkwardly missing. If you aren't reading my other story, I told everyone that my keyboard is being iffy on me. I think I caught all of the missing letters. Let me know if I didn't.

You woke up to your shoulder aching and half-hanging off of your bed, but with a secure arm wrapped around your waist. You stared at your far wall silently for a couple of moments, rolling your stiff and sore shoulder from having slept on it all night, and feeling significantly better than you had the night before. Saeyoung was pressed almost fully against you on your small bed, which was a little awkward, but you forced yourself to get used to it. Saeyoung liked cuddling even if you weren’t too big of a fan of it. You both had found pretty solid middle ground with spooning. You just missed Saeyoung’s large bed because your shoulder hadn’t hurt as much in the morning on his softer bed.

 

You rolled over slowly to glance at your fiancé’s face and found him already starting to wake up. You shouldn’t have moved. He was too light of a sleeper. You wanted him to sleep a little longer even if you knew he wouldn’t, so you slipped carefully out of bed and rubbed at your shoulder as you yawned. There was enough daylight for you to recognize that it was still fairly early but later than you would usually wake up. Checking your phone confirmed it was close to nine in the morning and that you had missed two phone calls and a couple of group chats. You sat down on the bed and opened the RFA app while you waited for Saeyoung to wake fully.

 

Nobody was on the chatroom when you were able to look at the group chats. The chats all consisted of them discussing what had happened the day before and the reality that was the fact they were all in a game. Yoosung had been the most paranoid about it, but surprisingly Jaehee and Jumin were the ones most disturbed by the new information. You wished that you could talk with them and reassure them that nothing would go bad, but you couldn’t promise it. And even if you could try to lie, they wouldn’t be able to understand you anyway. The language barrier sucked.

 

Jumin and Zen had both called you. You didn’t doubt that Jumin was calling for Saeyoung, but you weren’t sure why Zen would call if he couldn’t understand you anyway. The text messages you had received from everyone asking for updates were much easier to deal with.

 

 

** ZEN **

 

> **You’re finally awake!**
> 
> **Did you sleep well? Are you okay?**
> 
> **Yes, I’m fine. Sorry for not responding.**
> 
> **Saeyoung and I were up all night researching and crashed pretty hard.**
> 
> **I can imagine it!**
> 
> **Have you made any progress?**
> 
> **Saeyoung bought some computers so he has something completely new to work with. I was looking into details of the game to see if I could find anything. It’s been emotionally exhausting.**
> 
> **But I think Saeyoung has a plan!**
> 
> **That’s a relief. Honestly I hope all of this gets resolved soon.**
> 
> **Although the whole game thing...**
> 
> **It’s not reassuring.**
> 
> **I can’t believe this entire time we’ve been part of a video game!**
> 
> **I know that I said the whole bomb and hacker situation felt so much like a drama, but this is ridiculous!**
> 
> **What did you find out about the game?**
> 
> **Nothing fun.**
> 
> **Although it’s funny to see how the fandom is reacting to you guys.**
> 
> **Some of the stuff is funny anyway.**
> 
> **I want to see some!**
> 
> **There’s some sexy fanart of you ;3c**
> 
> **Naturally~**

 

Saeyoung yawned loudly behind you and sat up with a stretch. You lowered your cell phone to shoot him a smile as he pulled on his on glasses. He looked better than yesterday, but you could still see signs of his exhaustion. You wondered how much later he had stayed up after you had gone to sleep.

 

“Good morning.” You told him.

 

 

 

> **Saeyoung just woke up. I may have to go. Jumin’s been wanting to talk with him on the phone.**

 

“Good morning.” Saeyoung responded. He slipped off of the bed and ruffled his already-messy hair. You heard his bones creak a bit. You wondered if you still had that handheld massager somewhere nearby.

 

 

 

> **Ugh…I hate to let you go so quickly but yeah that’s important**
> 
> **Even though me talking to you is important too**

 

“Who are you talking to?” Saeyoung asked as he noticed your smile at the phone. “Or are you looking up more fanart?”

 

“That can wait until later. I’m talking with Zen, although I’m saying goodbye now.” You waved the phone at him. “Jumin called while we were asleep.”

 

“Gah! Jumin is almost as bad as V was about hounding me.” Saeyoung sighed, dropping his head and arms dramatically before straightening. “Probably worse, actually.”

 

“At least he’s not calling twenty times in a row?” You suggested somewhat hesitantly because you weren’t sure how much you were allowed to joke about V and what had happened yet. It had been almost a year, but you knew that Saeyoung was still sensitive to these things sometimes.

 

“There’s that, yeah.” He agreed.

 

 

 

> **It may be hard to keep in contact for today at least.**
> 
> **There’s a bunch of stuff both of us need to do from this side.**
> 
> **I’ll try to chat with you guys soon, though.**
> 
> **Okay. Keep in close contact okay? Or have Saeyoung keep in close contact or something.**
> 
> **We’re always waiting to hear more, okay?**
> 
> **Of course!**
> 
> **Have a good day, Zen! Make sure you eat breakfast if you haven’t already!**
> 
> **You too!**

 

You exited out of the messenger with a short sigh. Saeyoung was pulling on the same clothes he was wearing yesterday having apparently chosen to sleep only in his underclothes during the night. You hadn’t even noticed while you had been typing.

 

Unable to help the teasing, you said, “Oh~? My handsome fiancé was half naked in front of me and I was busy texting another man~?” You turned your head to the side, peeking at him playfully when you noticed that you had caught his attention. “Scandalous!”

 

“Ah!” Saeyoung cried. “What am I to do?! I’ve already committed myself to making this woman my wife!”

 

“I’m sorry, Saeyoung, but all of your friends are _so_ handsome! A lady can’t help but be smitten!”

 

“A-ha! I have an idea!” He snatched the phone from your hands before you could even attempt to do anything and pushed you backwards onto your bed before towering over you. He dropped the phone somewhere at the foot of the bed before kissing you soundly, capturing the tiny gasp you emitted. It still surprised you when he suddenly switched from his teasing mode to his more beastly side. You hoped that you would never get used to it.

 

You fully expected him to try to deepen the kiss more, but instead he surprised you again by switching right back to his playful mode and kissing you all over your face. Maybe he hadn’t switched at all in the first place? It had you giggling under his assault.

 

“I’ll just have to remind you just who you’re with.” He threatened with each kiss to your cheeks and forehead. You squirmed to try to get away.

 

“Is that a promise?” You asked through your laughter. You only realized a moment later how your words could have been taken as he paused, hovering above you, to stare at you. You were brought back suddenly to last night and what could’ve happened. What under normal circumstances you were sure could have happened if only things were normal. But both of you knew things weren’t normal right now and you were keenly aware of your family just on the other side of the thin walls of your bedroom.

 

You smiled ruefully and caught his cheeks between your hands. “Sorry. Still have to take a raincheck.”

 

Saeyoung pulled away from you and helped you sit up, visibly fighting with himself even as he let out a laugh. “Everything’s timing is terrible right now.” He bemoaned before picking the phone back up. “I’m gonna give Jumin a call and let him know what the plan is. We’re still going shopping today, right?”

 

“Right!” You agreed, recalling your original plan. You two needed clothes and maybe a mattress while you were killing time. And you also needed to get in contact with your friends and the other half of your family. You would have to visit your dad eventually. Beside you Saeyoung was already clicking around on the phone, so you let your thoughts slip out before you could even process them, “When I go to see my dad, do you want to come?”

 

“Wh-what? Meet your, uh, dad?” He asked, shocked.

 

“I’m sure he’ll be different than the kind of people you’re used to.” You told him. “But I mean . . . it’s only right. But you could visit him later if you’re too busy. He won’t mind.”

 

“No!” He cried before lowering his voice and clearing his throat. “No, I’ll go with you. It’s important that I meet him.”

 

“You’ve already met my mother. Trust me when I say Dad will be easy by comparison, haha!”

 

“I’ve dealt with worse either way. Your father sounded simple enough to deal with when you told me about him.” He turned back to the phone and brought it up to his ear. Almost immediately you could hear Jumin pick up, speaking first in English before switching over to Korean upon Saeyoung’s response.

 

You decided to leave Saeyoung to it and exited the bedroom. You were immediately greeted by Socks, who ran out of your mother’s room with a quick meow. Your heart melted as you quickly scooted her up into a hug and nuzzled your face into her soft fur. She felt like a rabbit. Her purring was loud in your ear. She’d never had this habit before, but if this was from her missing you then you would never be able to leave the creature.

 

You carried your cat around with you into the living room and the kitchen. Dalton wasn’t out yet, but Matilda also meowed a greeting at you from over near the food dish. You placed Socks down and pet Matilda as well.

 

Considering you couldn’t smell cigarette smoke in the air, you assumed your mother was still asleep. Your step-father was also probably at work. You would be able to have a quiet morning, so you decided to make breakfast. There wasn’t much you could really do with what you had, so you made some sunny side up eggs and toast. You considered looking up recipes for more Korean breakfasts later and wondered if Saeyoung would prefer them. You already knew you had become used to have steamed rice available any time. Saeran, you knew, preferred more Western breakfasts. It would be something you needed to ask Saeyoung’s opinion about.

 

You went back to the bedroom to fetch Saeyoung only to find him talking quickly on the phone still. He spotted you motioning for him to follow and so the both of you went back out into the kitchen together to eat. It was a bit surreal watching him talk in a completely different language. It was even more surreal to think about how apparently you had been speaking that language fluently not just yesterday. You wished that the knowledge had transferred.

 

Saeyoung said goodbye and hung up with Jumin about halfway through breakfast. You chewed your food and waited for him to speak, tilting your head a bit to the side to prompt him. “Jumin said to make sure you’re doing alright, which I said you were.” He said.

 

“You told him your plan too? What is your plan?”

 

“Oh, I haven’t told you yet. Saeran came up with the idea of developing a server for the game on the computer. Basically seeing if we can transfer most of the data onto the computer so it will be easier to not only deal with, but I can probably send a copy to Saeran so he can look through the code as well. It’ll make everything go twice as fast.”

 

“Oh!” You swallowed quickly and took a sip of your water before saying, “Does that mean we’ll be able to use the computer to talk to everyone? Like a computer chatroom?”

 

“If we have to stay long enough, then yes I can do that. It was made for the phone, but I can try to alter the code so we can have basic chatroom control on our computers. And maybe finally figure out how you can actually access the chatrooms again considering both of us are currently locked out.” Saeyoung picked up his empty plate and yours and carried them to the sink to rinse off. You told him he could leave the dirty dishes by the sink so you can wash them later. There were some there already. “Once we get it onto the computer, I can make sure that the information can’t be deleted. And I can make backups just in case.”

 

“That’s amazing! Oh god, that’s a freaking relief. Then that will be one less huge worry off our shoulders.”

 

He shared grins with you. “Exactly! But we can’t get started on that until the computers come in.”

 

“And you did order them, right?”

 

“Yes, I managed to do so last night.”

 

“Oh good. Then that just means we gotta go shopping.” Ugh, you still weren’t looking forward to it. Especially the mattress part. You’d never bought a mattress before. How would you get it home? Would Saeyoung want to buy a bed frame too?

 

“You should get dressed then unless you want to go out without a bra on.” He teased.

 

“Ugh, not here I’m not.” You said. “Could you go see if you can get the keys from Dalton? I want to try to slip out before Mom wakes up.” She always questioned where you went. It wasn’t a big deal, but you didn’t want to have to deal with answering twenty questions about where you were going and when you would be back.

 

“Yeah, sure.” The two of you went your separate ways. Saeyoung was able to get the keys from Dalton with little trouble, but your brother was standing there waiting for you when you had come out of the bedroom dressed in the same clothes you had worn yesterday.

 

“Can I come with you?” He asked.

 

“What? Why? You hate shopping. You’ll just be bored.” You pointed out.

 

He shrugged. “It’s something to do. And I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

 

You felt guilt and sympathy at his words, but you still protested. “Next time you can come with us. I don’t know how long it will take to go shopping. And possibly get a mattress.”

 

“A mattress? Seriously?”

 

“You try sleeping on a twin bed with two people.”

 

“Good point.”

 

Saeyoung huffed a laugh. “I can see the similarity between you two.”

 

“She’s a bad influence on me.” Dalton said, his voice shifting into a mocking tone that you knew he was using to pretend to be mother.

 

You laughed once loudly recalling that conversation. “No, _you’re_ the bad influence on _me_! You’re the one always causing problems!”

 

“No, I’m pretty sure the parents are right.”

 

“I’m pretty sure you’re full of shit. Let’s get going before mother wakes up. We’ll see you later, Dalton. Let Mom know where we went please. I don’t think my phone has service.” That meant you may not be able to use the RFA app. That was another thing you would have to test. It wasn’t connected to the internet before, but the app in the game was.

 

“See you later, Dalton.” Saeyoung gave him a short wave as the two of you exited. You took the keys from Saeyoung considering you knew where you were going and got behind the wheel of your old car. You had to adjust the seating considering your little brother was bigger than you in every aspect. Saeyoung glanced around the car with raised eyebrows before clicking his tongue.

 

“This is such a small car! Babe, you need better taste.”

 

“Sorry I’m not insanely rich and adore cars.” You teased sarcastically, rolling your eyes and nudging him. “I’ll leave that up to you. I’ve never known much about cars.”

 

“Which is a shame! You should let me teach you!”

 

“I used to know a couple things, but they just never stuck.”

 

“I’ll have to show you when we get back.” It was already hot in the car, so you turned up the A/C more.

 

“Yeah, sure. Show me some stuff. To be fair, I probably won’t remember though.” He shot you a surprised look. You turned down the radio a bit as you pulled up to your first red light and met his look. “What?”

 

He hesitated a bit before asking, “So you are planning on coming back with me if I can figure this out?”

 

Now you were startled. “What? You’re asking?”

 

“Of course I am.” He responded gently. “Babe . . . you do realize that if I can figure this out somehow . . . you may not be able to come back right? You might not even be able to talk to your family and friends. I have no idea what will happen once we start finally messing with the code. It may be like it was while you were in the game.”

 

You faced forward and started driving again, silent with thought. It wasn’t like you didn’t expect something like this. You hadn’t thought on it too hard ever since you’d had your anxiety attack. You didn’t want to think on it while you were still so emotionally drained. You should’ve expected the question, though. You needed ot have a response ready for everyone who would ask you your choice.

 

“You don’t have to answer me now. You have time to think on it.” Saeyoung added quickly, seeing your hesitation.

 

“No, it’s nothing like that.” You hurried to stop him. “Of course I’m coming back with you. I had always planned on staying with you no matter what.”

 

“Really?” He asked.

 

“Of course! Yeah, yeah, of course, Saeyoung.” You reached for his hand and he grabbed it to squeeze. “I love it in the game. And I will miss my family and friends, but I’m already used to it. I’ll finally get to say goodbye and that’s what I wanted.”

 

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” He asked, stunned. “Have you thought this through?”

 

“No, I haven’t. But I already know what my answer is. It was never going to be any different.” You paused and then confessed, “Although if you can somehow make it so I can still communicate with the people here, that would be great. Even if it’s just over something like Skype. But if not . . . then that’s the sacrifice I have to make.”

 

Saeyoung said your name with soft reverence before saying, “Think on it more. You should really think this kind of thing through.”

 

You huffed a laugh, but it was more of a concession than out of amusement. “Yeah, I will. But until I know the stakes, I can’t make a fully informed decision anyway.” You squeezed his hand once again. You honestly didn’t think your decision would change. You would miss your family and especially your friends, but you weren’t kidding when you said you were too used to the new life you had. You didn’t want to let it go. You couldn’t even imagine living in the real world anymore.

 

You wondered when your old life started feeling like a game you had just been playing for a very long time.


	18. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was fun to write. I hope it's just as enjoyable to read it too! I'm off to try to work on Different Path and then Memories of a Family. I'm gonna try to update all of them while I'm in a writing mood!
> 
> By the way I know I mentioned before the possibility of sex appearing in this story. I've read all of the feedback and I greatly appreciate it! I have decided that I will let what comes come naturally. If that means sex, then I will write it. If not, then I won't. For the time being I will leave the rating as is until it needs to be adjusted (because if there is sex, I don't know how explicit it will be, and if there isn't sex then I need to make it down to a T rating).
> 
> Thank you again and enjoy!

You hated clothes shopping with a passion and going to a mall only exacerbated the feeling. You didn’t like having to look at prices on the overpriced clothing. Normally you rarely changed up your wardrobe for exactly this reason and instead wore your clothes until they no longer fit you or were ruined. It was a little bit irksome that you had already suffered through buying an entire wardrobe eight months ago when you had first entered the game. Now you had to do it all again. And you had left all of your preferred clothes back in the game!

 

Saeyoung laughed as he climbed out of the car once that particular rant was finished. You whined, although you were aware of how silly you were being. Saeyoung shook his head in response.

 

“Shouldn’t t be less of a hassle now that you don’t have to worry about money, though?” He asked.

 

“I guess.” You conceded rather easily. He wasn’t wrong, after all. You shouldered your temporary purse (that was another thing you would have to buy today if you could) and hurried to his side to take his hand as you continued, “It helps that I have a guy with me so I feel less self-conscious about seriously shopping for pants in the male section.”

 

“Ah yes, that’s my true purpose in life. I’ve finally found it.” Saeyoung swung your hands back and forth playfully, shooting you a teasing smirk. You shouldered him a bit in response.

 

“I can return the favor for you.” You suggested with a returning grin. “If you find an outfit you like, I mean.”

 

“Ohh! Great idea! Would your family mind, though?”

 

“Who cares?” You shrugged. “As long as you don’t walk around naked I don’t think they would mind.” You had the image of your mother protesting about that and eying up your half-naked fiancé and you cringed. You hated your imagination sometimes.

 

“That’s so restrictive!” He cried, wiping fake tears from his eyes. “What kind of guy can’t walk around naked in his own home?”

 

You laughed. “The kind of guy who’s currently living with his in-laws.”

 

Abruptly Saeyoung’s humor dropped away as his cheeks turned a bit red. “God...That’s still really hard to get over...”

 

“Don’t worry too much. They seem to like you so far. If they can put up with me, they can put up with you.”

 

Saeyoung hummed but didn’t seem too reassured. You must have not really hit on what was bothering him more. You wondered if it had more to do with the fact that he was around your parents, or because he was dealing with this new step in your relationship that neither of you expected to actually hit. Maybe it was because Saeyoung didn’t know how to handle parents in general? You maybe needed to talk about it with him later, but you would wait to see if it becomes an issue.

 

“Besides,” you chose instead to jump back on the teasing topic, “Saeran doesn’t let you walk around naked, right?”

 

“Haha, no. He’d probably glare at me to make me uncomfortable until I got dressed.” He admitted. “Just another thing that’s different from when we were kids.”

 

You squeezed his hand and debated speaking your next thought but decided to do so anyway, “I’m sorry you miss him so much, Saeyoung.” 

 

“Huh? Oh! I didn’t mean to make this kind of atmosphere!” He blurted out, waving his free hand as if he could dispel the words away. “It was just an observation. Don’t worry.”

 

“Saeyoung…” You were still not reassured. How much was he hiding from you? Some days were easier to tell than others.

 

Saeyoung placed a kiss on your temple. “I’m fine.” He promised with a small smile.

 

“For now.” You pointed out, unable to help your anxious doubt.

 

“I can worry again when we’re back at your house and I have to work. I can’t do anything as we are right now anyway.” Aha! So he  _ had _ been worrying!

 

“Then let’s get the shopping done and hurry home to hopefully some new computers, yeah?” The rush of the air conditioner from the automatic doors in the mall sliding open made you shiver. God, that felt good.

 

“No need to hurry.” Saeyoung denied. “We should have fun on a date. It’s been a while since we’ve been on a proper one.”

 

“Are you still trying to seduce me even though you’ve already got a ring on my finger, Mr. Choi?”

 

Saeyoung’s smile turned cheeky and all worries about earlier faded in comparison to it as he brought your linked hands together and kissed the knuckle right above your ring. “It’s not about seduction, Mrs. Future-Choi. It’s about the fact that I like going out on dates with you.”

 

Now it was your turn to blush. You had to duck to hide your face, abruptly and immediately flustered and flattered. Saeyoung only laughed at your reaction like he always did when he got you. Damn him for being so good at this game! You wished that you were better at flirting. You weren’t able to talk to him without stumbling over your words and messing up a lot for the next few moments, so you gave up and instead turned your focus to your new location. It had been a long time since you had been there.

 

You liked the atmosphere of the mall, you decided as the two of you took your time to wander and decide where you wanted to go. There was still that unpleasant sensation of financial anxiety, but you beat it down as you reminded yourself that you could buy whatever. It also helped to be able to stop by your favorite tea shop and grab a to-go cup to carry with you. And to be able to get a hot soft pretzel to share with Saeyoung. Food was always much better than clothing, you thought.

 

You both were excited to enter a video game shop and you spent your time looking at some handheld games as well as any games you knew you still had consoles for. Gaming had advanced since you had last seen it. You had to ask Saeyoung what kind of computer he had bought for you because maybe you would finally be able to play some of the computer games you had always really wanted to play on your computer but had been unable to because of the lack of processing speed. Saeyoung had bemoaned that he couldn’t focus on buying any games for himself so that he wouldn’t be tempted to slack off from his work. He was also baffled by the lack of LOLOL.

 

Just like the video game shop, neither of you had been able to resist the temptation of checking out the toy store either. Its bright colors and interesting devices always drew you in like a fly to a light, but Saeyoung had beat you inside as he ran ahead to really look around. Even as you eventually lost interest in looking around at the toys, Saeyoung’s marvel at the sights had you fascinated as well. He would talk about how the mechanical toys were probably built and what kind of computer parts they used. 

 

It surprised you how knowledgeable he was, but then you remembered Meowy back at home and the matching Meowy alarm clock he had built for you and were no longer surprised by it. The two of you debated back and forth about Saeyoung maybe actually following through on making the toy shop he had dreamt about before and had informed you of way back when. Neither of you came to any kind of decision before you were moving on out of the store and onto other topics.

 

“We have to enter a clothes store eventually, babe.” Saeyoung joked, pulling you both to a stop after a solid hour of wandering and jumping into random stores.

 

“You wanted to go into all of those stores too!”

 

“I know, but we’re here for a purpose.”

 

You groaned. “I knooow, but...guh.”

 

He huffed, amused. “Come on~ Can’t wear the same outfit everyday.” He led the way into the nearest clothing store despite your reluctance as you finished off your tea.

 

“You mean we can’t look like the video game characters that we are?” You joked.

 

“You mean that I am.” He corrected with a squeeze of your hand.

 

“Aw, I can’t consider myself as one of the game gang?”

 

“You can, but we still have to get new clothes.”

 

“Okay~” 

 

You had to admit to some semblance of surprise towards Saeyoung. When you had first gotten to know him, you had thought that he was very similar to you. He never cleaned his house and preferred to sit around on the computer in the same outfit all day. Even now he was still like that. However unlike you over the past eight months he seemed to have matured a bit more than you had. He was actually willing to lead the way into doing an activity neither of you were in favor of. 

 

You wondered if your reluctance to shop was obnoxious. You decided to suck it up and actually focus on buying clothes.

 

Saeyoung continued to impress you on this front as well. He made the shopping entertaining by picking clothes for you to try on and insisting you do the same for him. This was a significant improvement to your half-hearted efforts to look through styles that you didn’t really care for or didn’t feel confident enough to even try on. You didn’t think many clothes in this store suited you at all. You pointed out this to Saeyoung.

 

“What if I don’t like what you chose?” You asked around an armful of fabric, glancing at some dresses and skirts that you definitely wouldn’t have even looked at twice if you had been looking by yourself.

 

“Doesn’t matter! The game rules state that you have to try it on anyway. Do it to increase Saeyoung’s affection points!” He grabbed your waist and spun you to march you towards the changing room doors. You grinned as you were reminded of Valentine’s Day and the little scavenger hunt he had sent you on.

 

“But I thought you had said your affection was already at max?”

 

“It is! Don’t worry about it too much if you keep overfilling the meter, though.”

 

You looked at him over your shoulder as you both dodged around another customer with her teenager with her. “So I try on the outfits even if I don’t like them?”

 

“Yup! And I’ll do the same for when you choose mine.”

 

You stopped to lean against the wall outside of the changing room, thrilled at this new idea. You had chosen well to have a partner who was so willing to have fun all of the time. You loved him dearly. 

 

“What size are you in women’s clothes?” You asked, eyes dragging up and down his body to estimate for yourself. 

 

“I’m pretty sure our countries don’t use the same measurements-”

 

“-’cause I wanna choose a size smaller. You have  _ such _ great assets to show off.” Especially his arms. You’re hoping that with the hotter weather of your hometown you would be able to convince him to wear less jackets and more tanktops. Especially since you had full permission to touch those arms any time that you wanted. 

 

“-gah!” Saeyoung cut off, blushing a bit under your gaze. He glared and pointed an accusing finger at you. “You-! You do that on purpose, don’t you?”

 

“Do what?” You asked, half-serious in your innocence. You weren’t quite sure what he was accusing you of.

 

He closed in on you until you were trapped between him and the wall. Your heart rate picked up as he leaned in, hands coming up to grip your hips as he murmured in your ear, “Your flirting. You purposely keep it to a minimum so that it’s all the more effective when you do it, right?”

 

You couldn’t think properly with him this close. You also couldn’t possibly move away. This wasn’t appropriate for where you two were at. Was Saeyoung always this bold? You didn’t have a lot of experience with going out on dates with him, so you didn’t know for sure. It was exhilarating and terrifying.

 

“Was…” you swallowed around the dryness of your mouth, “was that flirting? Haha, I wouldn’t know.”

 

Saeyoung leaned back just a bit to meet your gaze and judge how truthful you were being. You could feel his heart also pounding in his chest from where your hands were pinned between his chest and bundle of clothes in your arms. You hadn’t seen that look in his eyes since back in that cabin with the words about leaving proof of his existence on you whispered into the air. Memories flashed through your head that jump-started your heart into an even faster pace and made your legs a bit weaker than they had been feeling a few minutes ago. All of this was so exotic and intoxicating to you. 

 

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the tension disappeared with Saeyoung’s grin. He cupped your cheek and kissed you swiftly before pulling away with a chuckle, “Hehe! That part about you is super cute too.” He said before turning to a nearby clothes rack, scanned through the sizes, and pulled out another shirt before adding it to your pile. “Now hurry and go try these on. I’m excited to see what you choose for me!”

 

You could only stare at him, stunned. If it was possible to get emotional whiplash, you probably just got it. How were you supposed to react to that? Was this what fanfictions and novels described as “hot and bothered”? You would say it was pretty much in the ballpark for how you were feeling just then.

 

“I...okay.” You responded weakly and entered the room to find a stall to change in. You spotted yourself in the mirror and only became even more embarrassed at the state you were in. You had to take a moment and just cover your face in an effort to recover your composure. 

 

Saeyoung was unfair. What part of you is cute? Your attempts at humor that were somehow also flirtations? The fact that that flirting could even compare when Saeyoung’s flirting could absolutely destroy you without much effort? Nobody had ever had this effect on you before. That made everything Saeyoung did all the more powerful to you. Eight months you had been dating Saeyoung, but many of those months he had spent focusing on helping his brother so you hadn’t even begun to prepare yourself for the life you would soon be living. If this was love, you didn’t know how your heart could take it.

 

“You’re so unfair.” You whimpered softly as you glanced at yourself in the mirror again. Your face was just as red as before. You would have to take your time trying on the clothes you had.

 

Speaking of which, you needed to get started on that. You were curious to find out what you looked like in the clothing that your fiancé had chosen for you. It seemed to be an eclectic mixture, so you got started on testing them out for yourself. Most of them you either didn’t care for, didn’t fit properly, or didn’t think you could put up with how short they were. You didn’t know which clothes were chosen as a joke by Saeyoung and how much of it had been serious. You pretended that all of them were serious options even though some of the short rode up into your cracks so much that you considered smacking Saeyoung for thinking you would seriously wear them.

 

But the rest of the clothing you didn’t think looked too bad. You were very self-concious about finding dresses and skirts and anything you deemed as “fashionably girly” mostly due to lack of experience with them, so you were happy to leave the choice up to Saeyoung. You would reward him for it and decided to take pictures of yourself in some of the outfits you liked the most before you changed back into your normal clothes and exited the changing room. 

 

Saeyoung wasn’t waiting by the door and seemed to be exploring some shoes on the other side of the store. You took the chance to hang the clothes you didn’t like back on the return rack before joining him. He looked at you briefly when he heard you coming before smiling and turning to face you fully. “What? What happened to all of my wonderful choices?” He asked, looking over your now significantly smaller pile.

 

“These are my choices from your choices.” You informed him. 

 

“You didn’t even show me any.” He pouted.

 

You pulled out your phone and shook it at him. “I took a couple of pictures to save me the effort of leaving and going back into the changing room.” You scooted next to him and prepared to show him the images when he murmured your name,

 

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable before.” He ran a hand into the hair on the back of his head nervously.

 

You could feel your cheeks warming again at the reminder. “No, you didn’t!” You hurried to assure him. You were unable to meet his gaze as you added in a small voice, “I...um, I...liked it.”

 

You kind of wished that you’d had the confidence to see what kind of reaction your words had caused, but instead you had anxiously attempted to type in the code to unlock your phone. You messed it up three times before Saeyoung huffed a laugh.

 

“I guess I’ll have to do it more then.” He took your phone as you unlocked it finally and clicked to your gallery. It caused you to finally look at him and saw the soft and slightly devious look on his face as he smiled at you. “I’ve been holding back all of this time because I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. You’ll have to forgive me if I start testing the boundaries.” His own cheeks turned a little pink as finally he showed a little bit of his own embarrassment. “Now that you’ve finally agreed to marry me...I don’t think I’ll be able to resist much more.”

 

You bit your lip briefly before releasing it, tucking your hair behind your ear nervously. “That’s fine.” You assured him, unable to raise your voice. “I want you to...After all, I don’t really know where my boundaries lay.” You glanced at him from under your eyelashes. “I want to find them out with you.”

 

Saeyoung took your free hand and squeezed it tightly before pressing another quick by heated kiss to your lips. “Thank you.” You didn’t think that he had to thank you at all for being truthful. “I just wish that we’d had this conversation not in public.” He confessed, more to himself than to you.

 

You bit back the urge to make a smart comment about that and instead motioned to the pictures. “So tell me what you think of these and then I’ll go start picking out some clothes for you to try on. I completely plan on making you try on a pair of those crotch-rider shorts you made me wear.”

 

Saeyoung let out a laugh at that, at which point you really did slap his arm. He only continued to giggle to himself as he finished looking through the photos and refused to be chastised. You were so going to get him back for that. You weren’t leaving until you got a picture of him in those and you hoped he was just as uncomfortable as you had been in them. Revenge would be sweet. You would sneak into the changing room yourself if it meant getting that shot. Blackmail was something you needed to compile for usage once you both were back in the game.


	19. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a long one! Usually I cut it off earlier, but the scene wasn't done. Even now it's still not completely done. I'm tempted to do Saeyoung's pov next chapter.

The shopping trip was a lighthearted relief that you both had needed. You didn’t realize how stressed out you had been until your date with Saeyoung was over and you two were back home putting together your new bed frame. Despite the effort that it was, Saeyoung had even made that entertaining. It helped that he was great at putting things together and understood the instructions much better than you did.

 

You had fun chatting with both him and Dalton as the bed frame was built. It relieved you that the two of them seemed to get along. It helped that you and Dalton shared a lot of the sense of humor you had even though he was more serious at times. Some of his shock humor even startled Saeyoung, which only made it all the more hilarious. Even better was when the mattress was finally carried awkwardly into the room you guys only managed to knock over half as much stuff as you had expected. Your calves would be mottled with bruises for the next couple of days, but that was nothing unusual.

 

The computers had also arrived while you were gone. Saeyoung had been grateful to discover that Dalton had been smart enough to take them out of their boxes and put them to charge while you both had been gone. That meant less time had to be spent waiting while they fully charged for the first time. You told Saeyoung to go ahead and get started on what he needed to while you went ahead to put the clothing away. Saeyoung was going to put off the computers so that he could assist you with putting away the clothing, but you knew that computers were priority. You instead urged him to take advantage of the soft and spacious new bed you both had chosen while you put the clothes away.

 

Naturally Dalton had to comment on this, “Oh, you’re not gonna just leave them all over the floor?”

 

You were really bad about putting your clothes away. It was something you had accepted about yourself. You could choose at least one chore to be very lazy about. However, with the large bed taking up half of your room you couldn’t in good conscious take up even more space with just clutter. Especially since they were new clothes.

 

(To be honest with yourself, though, you knew you would probably start leaving them on the floor soon enough. Or in a basket. God, you hated hanging up clothes.)

 

“No, they have to be washed at least once first.” You responded, slightly mortified that he was calling you out like that in front of Saeyoung. Your fiancé had yet to become aware of your worst habit.

 

“Oh, that habit started here?” Saeyoung asked curiously. He lifted his head from staring at one of the computer screens as your head whipped towards him.

 

“How do you know about that?” You demanded, shocked.

 

“There were times I was at the apartment and you weren’t home, remember? You don’t keep your room clean~” He sing-songed.

 

Goddammit, past self. Way to fuck up.

 

You hung up another tank tap on a clothes hanger and then pointed it at him. “You have n-no room to talk!” Damn your stutter! “You’re just as bad with your trash! You leave Honey Buddha chips and PhD Pepper cans everywhere! I even heard Saeran complain about it once. _Saeran_!”

 

Saeyoung gasped at the accusation. “‘PhD Pepper’?” Dalton asked skeptically.

 

Then Saeyoung let out a giggle. “Hehe, that’s why I have a maid~”

 

“ _Had_ a maid. Who wasn’t even a maid.” You sniffed. “I’m still amazed that you got Vanderwood to clean your house all of the time.”

 

“Making him clean it is the easy part.” Saeyoung chuckled to himself, adjusting his glasses as they slid down his nose a bit.

 

“You’ll have to teach me your methods.”

 

“Can we just agree that your house will be a fucking mess?” Dalton asked wryly.

 

“Yes! I’ll ruin the bedroom with clothes piles and Saeyoung will bury us in snack junk!” You agreed.

 

“Saeran will be so unhappy.” Saeyoung protested brightly.

 

You didn’t want to upset Saeran, so you hummed as you thought of a better solution. “Or we could switch chores?” You suggested. “We’re going to be living together...right?” You glanced at him and he nodded in agreement. It warmed your heart to see that. “Okay, right, so I mean...I don’t mind picking up trash if you put clothes away.”

 

“You don’t act like you have a problem with clothes considering you were insistent about washing my stuff while we were sharing Rika’s apartment.”

 

“I don’t mind doing laundry.” You corrected him with a little laugh. “I just don’t like actually putting the clothes away after they’re done.”

 

Saeyoung didn’t respond but he shot your brother a baffled look. “I know right? It doesn’t make any freaking sense.” Dalton said as you made an offended noise.

 

“Hm…” Saeyoung hummed and dropped his gaze back to his computer in his lap. his fingers danced across the keyboard with a speed that awed you. “That could work. I have a lot of clothes, after all, so it’s not like I’m not used to it.”

 

“Cosplay.” You corrected under your breath.

 

“Boring!” Dalton complained.

 

“Oh yeah, working together is _sooo_ boring!” You agreed sarcastically. “What a tool.”

 

“Can’t believe you’ve been gone for so long and you come back and bully your brother.”

 

“Will you get out if you’re doing absolutely nothing productive?”

 

He whined your name. “I’m spending time with my dear sister and her boyfriend~”

 

“Fiancé.” You corrected automatically, smiling at the word as it left your mouth.

 

“Whatever.”

 

“Good _bye_ , Dalton!” You pointed him out the door. When he didn’t leave, the two of you began to manhandle each other as you attempted to push him out of the room. Unfortunately for you he was bigger than you in every aspect despite being younger, but you managed to gain control enough to shove his large body out of the room enough to shut the door and lock it. Even then he banged on the door a couple of times and scratched at it like the cats liked to do whenever they wanted in.

 

“Stop it!” You called to him as you huffed and returned to your clothes, turning to Saeyoung as you continued unpacking the clothing. He was grinning as he worked, which instantly made you smile in return. You loved entertaining him.

 

“What are you so amused about?” You asked.

 

“You and your brother. It’s fascinating to see you interact with him.”

 

“Because we’re funny?”

 

“Yes! You’re both hilarious!” He laughed. “But also, you act so differently with him. Is that what you’re like when you’ve been with someone for so long?” His eyes darted to yours, sparkling, before going back to his work. You reached down into the bags and pulled out some underwear. You tried not to be too aware of the underwear as you put them away. You couldn’t remember if the Deadpool boxers were Saeyoung’s or yours.

 

“I mean, I guess?” You knew that you acted differently around different people and you knew you hadn’t reached your 100% relaxed state with Saeyoung yet, but were you being too much around him? Did you need to tone it down because he still needed to get used to you? “Is it bad?” You asked hesitantly.

 

“Nope! I like seeing these different sides of you.” That assuaged your anxiety for this round. “What’s the difference between me and him? That he’s your brother?”

 

How were you supposed to answer a question like that? You couldn’t help how you acted around people usually. “Probably just time. I’ve been around him all of his life, after all. Besides, I push you around too.”

 

“And bully me.”

 

“I thought you were a sadist, not a masochist.” You joked.

 

Saeyoung muttered the words under his breath in confusion. You were about to tell him what they meant, but he seemed to put two and two together on his own. “It feels more like you’re challenging me when you try to mess with me. I wouldn’t consider it masochism if I enjoy the play.”

 

Your mind chose then to remind you about earlier during your date at his words. No, he was definitely more of a sadist with his type of play. You turned back to your clothing as you felt your heart rate pick up. You wanted to join Saeyoung on the bed and relax with him on it. If only you both weren’t busy. You wanted to make out with him for a little while.

 

Your hand dropped to pat your hip here you’d last had your phone in the pockets of your new shorts that you were wearing, but you didn’t find it there. Saeyoung must have that as well. Which made sense considering he would want to get started on reading the code as soon as possible. You wondered how your friends were doing. you hadn’t been able to check the chat rooms or get any messages through the app without Wi-Fi while you were out on your date. Now that you were home you wanted to look and read whatever they were talking about. You also wanted to keep them up to date on what was occurring.

 

That actually brought a number of questions to mind. Would Saeyoung even have time to try to fix the chatroom if he was working on solving the issue of returning you to the game? Would you be able to ever send pictures? What about links? It would be fascinating if you could show your friends stuff from your world. It had to be possible, right?

 

Saeyoung had already told you that he wanted to try to connect the game to the computer so as to have easier access to everything in the game. Did he have any plans further than that? Especially since your phone didn’t have any service which meant if you both left Wi-Fi then you would lose communication with them. That was something else that you needed to do. Your list just seemed to be growing longer. At least you had the clothes and bed problem solved. Baby steps.

 

“Saeyoung?” You called, pausing while staring at all the clothes you still had to put away. You both had bought full wardrobes -including shoes- but this was a fucking lot and it seemed endless. Maybe you went a bit overboard. Did you even have room for all of these clothes? Maybe you would have to leave some on the floor after all. Better designate a clean clothes pile.

 

Saeyoung hummed in response.

 

“If you manage to get the app onto the computer, what’s the plan?” Ah, there was that top that both you and Saeyoung owned a copy of. What a comfy tee shirt.

 

“Umm…” He paused in his typing and gave you a bit of an owl-eyed look before his mind processed your words. You would have to leave him alone soon. You were probably bothering him.

 

“Sorry, if you need to focus I can stop-”

 

“No, it’s okay. Most of this stuff is just adding anti-virus and making it untraceable and such. I can do this in my sleep. Besides, a lot of stuff is downloading, and I can’t do a whole lot anyway. You’re not bothering me.”

 

“Let me know if I am.”

 

“You’re never bothering me.” He smiled.

 

“You didn’t say that back at the apartment.” You huffed.

 

He grinned more. “I’ve already apologized for how I acted back then. Do you need me to do it more?”

 

“No, I just like giving you a hard time.” You joked, kissing in his direction. He kissed back before he finally answered,

 

“To answer your question, it depends. I want to add an extension the RFA app -at least from this end- for the computers. I won’t need the emailing feature and I can leave the phone call features as well as the texting. If it goes well and everything is compatible enough, I’m going to try to add more features such as video chat or something. I can figure out as I go.”

 

“Can something like that really be done?” You asked.

 

“I’ve done it before and it’s not difficult. The hardest part is seeing if I can connect a game to a ‘real life’ chat room. Which will take some looking into. At least for that part I can possibly send a file with all of the information to Saeran so he can look too. Although I don’t know how well it would work.” His face took on a disturbed look, clearly uncomfortable and confused by his own thoughts. “I would be sending the information that makes up our world to someone in that world to look at. God...I’m getting a headache thinking about it.”

 

You smiled brightly at him, sympathetic in his plight. “That’s amazing, God Seven! It would definitely be easier to type instead of using my piece of shit old phone. I miss MC’s phone. It was an updated and better phone than mine. I forgot how much mine sucks.”

 

“It is a little dated.” He admitted with a chuckle, shaking off his previous thoughts. “What’s so bad about it, though?”

 

“Wait until we can use it properly again. Then you’ll see.” You grumbled darkly.

 

“Om~i~nous~” He sang.

 

There was a knock on your door. The person on the other side attempted to open it before you even called for them to enter. You could tell just by the shaking of the knob that it was your mother even before she called out to you to open the door. You somewhat reluctantly did, and she exclaimed with delight as she saw your bed.

 

“Wow! I saw you two bringing it in, but it’s so different in here with all of your room taken up by the bed.”

 

“And her clothes not all over the floor!” Dalton called from across the house. Matilda slipped into the room with a murr and hopped up onto the bed to sniff at it, much to Saeyoung’s joy. Socks attempted to run in as well, but she saw Saeyoung and dashed back out again. She would get used to him eventually. You resisted the urge to chase her again.

 

“Shut up, Dalton!” You called back. “And yeah, I know. The bed’s better than before, though.” You added for your mother as you continued your reluctant pursuit to finish putting your wardrobe away. Almost there now.

 

“I’m sure it is. Saeyoung, are you working on three computers as once?”

 

Saeyoung nodded. “It’s easy enough.”

 

“You should type with your toes.” You teased.

 

“Hehe, haven’t reached that point of necessity yet.”

 

“Your toes?” Your mother asked.

 

“Yeah.” He didn’t go into details, distracted again by whatever he was looking at on his screen. Your mother gave a slightly impatient look towards him.

 

“It’s a thing.” You explained but didn’t. “Also, don’t worry if he doesn’t respond much. He’s just focused on getting the computers set up. He’s like that.”

 

“Like what?” Saeyoung asked.

 

“Like a cutie.” You responded.

 

“I am a cutie.” He agreed with a smile. Matilda made her way over and curled up next to him in possibly the most awkward place she could between two of the computers and Saeyoung’s leg. He immediately began to pet her. You could hear her purrs from where you were standing.

 

Your mother shot you an amused smile, but you didn’t return it. You still felt so stiff around her. You thought that you had gotten over that, but her presence still set you on edge. Your tongue was looser and harsher even if you tried to contain it. You would be careful. You didn’t need to provoke her, but at the same time you didn’t feel like answering any of her inane questions.

 

Your mother approached you and picked out some of your clothes. She examined them and then asked, “Did you really go and buy all of these?  Where did you even get the money?”

 

“It came with us when we came here.” Saeyoung lied smoothly. You were a bit surprised he didn’t tell her something closer to the truth, but you weren’t going to go against his decision. You were jealous of his ability to bullshit like that without any kind of cues. “I can access my bank through her phone.”

 

“Just another reason why nobody is allowed to play on the app.” You added.

 

She ignored you. “And you’re okay spending this much money?” She asked surprised as she took in the expensive-looking laptops he had. You knew that he would’ve spent even more for desktops if you’d had the room.

 

“He’s rich.” You said.

 

“I am not!” He protested immediately. “I have a decent amount! Jumin is a lot richer!”

 

“Well compared to Jumin Han even you could possibly seem poor.” You laughed, but you could clearly picture his amazing underground home with a garage full of more expensive sports cars than you had ever expected to see outside of MTV’s Cribs or one of your dad’s car shows.

 

“And Jumin is a friend from the game, right?” Your mother asked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“It’s really weird hearing about people who haven’t even seen Jumin’s face.” Saeyoung muttered. “He has fingers in pies everywhere.”

 

“All the irons in the fire.” He didn’t get your joke. Disappointing, but not surprising.

 

“Oh, so you’re rich? You caught us a rich guy, baby~” Your mother cooed as she pulled you closer with one arm. If unwanted physical touch made you uncomfortable, those words combined with the unwanted hug made your entire mood plummet. You were mortified. You didn’t want Saeyoung to think you were shallow!

 

“Thanks, mother.” You attempted to duck out from under her arm.

 

She made an offended noise. “Oh, you know I’m joking.”

 

“Yeah.” You said but didn’t really believe it.

 

“You haven’t changed at all.” She huffed with a roll of her eyes. “I don’t see why you won’t let your mother hug you. Especially since you’ve been missing for eight months!”

 

Guilt appeared in your chest, but you fought it back. You knew she was trying to guilt you into doing something that you knew that she knew you hated. “I told you that I don’t like being touched.”

 

“But I’m your mother! I’m allowed to touch you!”

 

“It’s not a personal thing.” You argued. “I don’t like being touched in general!” Your eyes darted to Saeyoung to see how he would react, but he was only watching what was occurring with a small frown. You turned your attention back to your mother.

 

“I’m sure you let Saeyoung touch you.” Your mother protested.

 

“It’s _different_ with him.” You bit back the words _I’m comfortable with him_ before you said them. You knew she would misinterpret them to be an offense to her rather than a general statement. She didn’t deserve the explanation that there were sometimes you didn’t even want Saeyoung to touch you either.

 

“Whatever.” She huffed again. “I don’t want us to fight.” You were surprised she was dropping the argument, but that must be because she was still in a good mood with you being back from the game. You didn’t know if that irritated you more. “If you’re so rich, then give us some money Saeyoung~” She teased.

 

Saeyoung shot you a look as you sighed, “ _Mom_.” You scolded.

 

“Oh, just relax! I’m just kidding!” She gave you an annoyed look. You could tell she was still in a good mood, though.

 

“I don’t have that much money anyway.” Saeyoung added. “These are my savings we’re using. We told you at dinner last night that I’m in between jobs right now, after all.”

 

“I already said that I’m just kidding anyway.” She repeated. You were irritated. You knew that she wasn’t joking at all. If she knew that you really did have a lot of (questionable) money, then she would gladly take some. Normally you might give some to the family to help, but it wasn’t really your money. And Saeyoung had already hidden the truth about the money.

 

“These are your clothes?” Your mother pulled out one of your bras and quickly glanced at Saeyoung. He was back to typing on a new computer, although one of his hands was also going on a different laptop. “You bought underwear around your boyfriend?” She murmured to you in a lowered voice. “You’re that comfortable with him?”

 

“Fiancé.” You corrected. “And I don’t care if he sees me in underwear.” Although depending on the level of nudity you did become a bit shy.

 

She raised an eyebrow. “Are you having sex with him?”

 

“ _Mom!_ ” You hissed, horrified that you were now in this territory.

 

“I’m just asking! I mean you had told me that you’re...uh, whatever-sexual. I thought you weren’t interested in sex.”

 

“I’m not asexual mom. It’s demisexual.”

 

“Yeah that, whatever.”

 

Annoying! “And it doesn’t matter! It’s just underwear!” You couldn’t help but get defensive.

 

“But sex?”

 

You groaned. You were not going to have this conversation. “It’s nothing, mom!”

 

“I mean you are engaged and I’m not judging-”

 

“It’s not really your business though?”

 

“Uh, excuse me? How is it not my business when my daughter suddenly has a boyfriend? I’m your mother and I should know!”

 

You hated that excuse. You didn’t agree at all, and it frustrated you. You could feel your anger building faster than it would for any other person. You had no patience for this kind of talk. It wasn’t like you were sixteen! You were an adult!

 

But you bit your tongue and didn’t respond, instead glaring at your clothes as you took the bras and put them away.

 

Saeyoung cleared his throat, attracting both of your attentions. He had that broad smile on his face that you knew hid his true thoughts. “Can I have in on this?” 707 asked with his silliness dancing with his words. “Mrs. Josephine, you’re embarrassing my poor sweetie.” He met your eyes and winked. You blushed a bit at the nickname. “Don’t kiss and tell, right~? Don’t wanna talk about how my virtue was stolen from me~!”

 

You loved his silly voice. You were still angry, but he did wonders to break the tension. “Stolen?” You joked, “You’re the one who misplaced it!”

 

“It’s somewhere in my house, I think!” He complained. “Babe, you need to help me find it!”

 

“We have to get home first.”

 

“Actually,” your mother interrupted your play, “what are you guys planning about that?”

 

Another topic that you didn’t want to discuss yet. At least she was distracted from the last one. “We’re just trying to deal with these computers first.”

 

“Anything past that will have to wait depending on what happens with the original plan.” Saeyoung added. Your mother opened her mouth probably to clear up that she wasn’t referring to Saeyoung’s plan of action but once again Saeyoung spoke up and called your name, “Do you mind getting me my water bottle? I left it on the kitchen table when we came home.”

 

“Yeah, sure.” You agreed and tried not to show that you were clearly fleeing from the situation. God, Saeyoung had saved you multiple times now. You loved that man.

 

You went ahead and grabbed the water bottle and spotted Dalton watching you with a raised eyebrow. The house was small enough that bickering could easily be heard with the door wide open like it was. He only sighed and shook his head, exasperated.

 

“Didn’t she change at all while I was gone?” You hissed to him.

 

“Of course fucking not. She’s actually better than she was because she’s happy you’re home.” He said.

 

“God help us.” You grumbled as you returned to the bedroom. Your mother was pulling out different clothes and looking through them. Whatever she and Saeyoung had been talking about, they had finished by the time you got back. You handed him his water and got a thanks in return.

 

Your mother called your name. “Some of these clothes are really questionable.” She pointed out. “Even if some of them are Saeyoung’s.” You wondered if Saeyoung had told her that you two had mixed the clothes so much that you would be lucky to remember what was actually yours and what was his.

 

“Yeah, well.” You didn’t bother to continue. Your mother was holding one of the dresses you knew for a fact were yours. Both you and Saeyoung had tried it on, but you had wanted it while he didn’t. It was cute, you thought, and easy to wear even casually. Plus, it was comfortable.

 

Naturally your mother had to say something about it, “Don’t you want to dress sexier for him, though?” She motioned to the bust of the dress where it was frilled to not show off your breasts while wearing it. It was all about the skirt of the dress rather than the chest. “I mean, it’s cute and everything but still. You didn’t even have any sexy bras or lingerie.”

 

“I don’t want to dress sexy.” You told her, not for the first time.

 

“Yeah, but you have a boyfri-”

 

“ _Fiancé._ ”

 

“-yes, I meant fiancé- to dress up for.”

 

“He helped me pick out my clothes.” You pointed out, trying to take the dress from her to hang up.

 

“You need something that clings more. When are you going to wear stuff more appropriate for your age?” She sounded like she was joking, but everything burned you. You hated that she was saying this in front of Saeyoung. Your mind protested that these clothes were from the adult section. Why was she being like this? How could she be worse about these things just because you had someone in your life now? Was this her attempt to make conversation? You wanted none of it.

 

“Actually,” Saeyoung interrupted cheerfully, “that’s mine.”

 

“What?” Your mother asked, shocked.

 

“Yeah. I like to, um. Hm. Honey, what do you call it?”

 

“Crossdress.” You informed him somewhat dully, biting back the rumble of emotions in you. It must be so obvious. You needed a moment. You pushed it all down.

 

“Yeah, that’s it! I like crossdressing. Is that a problem, Mrs. Josephine? I look great in dresses. I have the assets.” He joked playfully.

 

“Oh, that should be interesting. I don’t think James will like it.” Your mother noted, but she sounded interested enough. “Are you into that cosplay crap too?”

 

“Oh yeah, it’s fun!”

 

You tuned out the conversation from there and turned your focus to quickly putting away the rest of the clothes. You didn’t want to interact right now. You wanted this job done and you wanted your mother out of the room. You both wanted to be alone, but you also didn’t want to be away from Saeyoung. Your skin felt too tight.

 

Eventually your mother did leave as Dalton called for her multiple times. She left with a kiss to your cheek. You called for her to close the door after her which she did. Saeyoung immediately put aside his computer and apologized to Matilda for disturbing her rest before he slid off of the bed to approach you.

 

“Are you okay?” He asked, hands hovering near your arms but not touching you.

 

You swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” You lied but gave him a terse smile. “I’m just finishing this. Don’t worry. I’m used to this.”

 

“It seemed like a lot of stupid stuff.” He told you.

 

You huffed a laugh. “She’s usually less insistent than today. I think she just wanted to talk with me. Too bad she just kept fucking up on everything.” You felt like shit.

 

Saeyoung debated with himself for a few moments, rolling his thoughts around in his mind. He ducked into your line of sight with a soft smile and brushed his fingers across your cheek. “You have to admit that it was funny that she thought she was being too quiet about the sex thing for me to hear.”

 

You groaned, blushing again at the reminder. “She can’t be quiet! And it was horrible!”

 

“It was funny. Especially seeing you trying to dance your way through that minefield.” He pitched his voice higher. “‘Honey, did you do The Sex?’ ‘Mom, please stop. Saeyoung’s virtue is Very Important. He’s sensitive about it.’.” He paused to laugh more as he brought a smile to your face. “I also love how you just automatically made it sound like I just dropped it somewhere and can’t find it.”

 

“Because that image is so much more hilarious!” You laughed.

 

“Ah, ah, there it is.” He murmured, bringing you back to yourself at the gentle look in his eyes. “There’s that smile I’d missed. You’re so much cuter laughing.”

 

You dropped your gaze, pleased. You could still feel the lingering pit of toxicity from earlier hanging about in your chest. It wasn’t fully gone yet. You looked back up at him. “Thank you, Saeyoung.”

 

He pressed a kiss to your forehead but didn’t say anything more before he turned back to the computers. “Do you need any help with the last of your stuff?”

 

“No, go ahead and finish.” You told him. Your eyes lingered on the dress your mother had been talking about. Maybe you should try it on to confirm your feelings. “I’m basically done anyway.”

 

“Don’t leave everything on the floor.” He teased.

 

“Oh, shut up.” You wiggled out of your shirt and tossed it at him without a whole lot of thought. He grinned and pulled the shirt off of his face to pause and gaze at you. You shifted nervously and moved quickly to take down the dress and pull it on. You didn’t have the confidence to also take off your shorts too.

 

Saeyoung hummed cheerfully. “See, I don’t know what kind of stuff your mother is spouting. That’s a cute bra. And you look cute in it.”

 

“...Thank you.” You murmured. “But this isn’t anything special anyway.”

 

“Doesn’t make it less cute.”

 

“Quit buttering me up.” You told him as you built up enough courage to reward his stroking of your ego to take off your shorts and toss them onto the bed as well. You could wear them again since you had only worn them for a few hours while you had been building the bed.

 

“Never.” He promised. “It’s worth it to see you get all embarrassed.”

 

“Sadist!” You accused, flushing and finally pulling on your dress.

 

He only winked and smiled. You were thankful for him. So thankful.


	20. Interlude 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a short chapter. I actually wanted to add this scene into the last chapter, but I totally forgot to. So I'm putting it from Saeyoung's perspective.
> 
> It's a short chapter due to lack of time. Sorry! I hope you enjoy nonetheless!

Saeyoung didn’t really understand the dynamic that Josephine seemed to think she had with her daughter. On the surface it looked like she was just being kind of annoying while giving her daughter some...helpful? advice. He supposed in some way he should excuse her actions because she’s not be intentionally malicious...but how could she have given birth to her daughter and not be able to read her reactions as easily as Saeyoung could? She had been uncomfortable and agitated. He could tell when the woman’s words had pierced too much and had dug deep into her thoughts. When the mother had gone, the aftereffect had been obvious.

 

You had been more subdued than before. You had been put in a good mood while you had been helping bring in the new bed and bantering with your younger brother. Saeyoung could tell that you were at ease in your own room with Dalton’s company. You had even willingly chosen to put away all of the clothing so that Saeyoung could focus on setting up the computers and getting them ready for usage. He still needed to wait for his computer fans to come in before he could really get to work, though. They would be in tomorrow. 

 

But yet after your encounter with your mother, you were quieter now. Not even in the way you had been quiet for Saeyoung to concentrate, but rather because something in you had been beaten into a submission that Saeyoung recognized popped up in a while in you. It was a problem that he and Saeran shared as well.

 

You stood in front of the full-length mirror you had hanging off of your closet door in the new dress your mother had commented on. Saeyoung had remembered your delight in finding that dress while at the mall. You had showed it off to him and chattered about how you just needed to find a matching jacket or a light sweater to go over it. You had been intent on finding a good pair of shoes to match it. Saeyoung had already been thinking about when would be a good time to go on another date since you had seemed so thrilled about your new outfit. He wanted to see what you looked like when you were feeling confident and beautiful, even if he liked your shy side as well.

 

But he could tell something was wrong. The very air in the room felt tainted by it -darker than it had been before Josephine had made her comments. Your bright mood had dimmed and now you only gazed at yourself half-heartedly in the mirror as you gently touched the frills on the dress you had liked so much.

 

You were always distracting, but his computers were also finishing their downloads and updates so he didn’t have anything else to do but wait and then call up Saeran. Matilda slept soundly beside him, curled up into a tight, adorably fat ball. Saeyoung’s attention couldn’t help but be focused completely on you. 

 

You sighed then and stopped moving, staring at yourself. Saeyoung could see the sad frown on your face before you shook your head, angry, and pulled the dress over your head to toss onto the floor. Saeyoung startled at the abuse as you hurried to pull back on your original clothes, kicking the dress away before covering your face. He hurriedly placed aside the computers and once again climbed off the bed to hurry to your side.

 

“Gah!” He cried. “Why did you do that?”

 

“I shouldn’t have gotten that dress.” You announced when he gently grabbed your shoulders. Your cheeks were red, but you were no longer glaring at the dress. You turned your face away so that he couldn’t see it. “It doesn’t suit me at all.”

 

“What are you even talking about?” He asked, baffled and concerned. “You look amazing in that dress! Didn’t we just go over that with your bras?”

 

You paused but then shook your head. “It doesn’t matter. It looks childish. I’m not a teenager anymore and I’m not skinny enough to look good in it. I shouldn’t have bothered. I wasted your money. I should have just gotten something else. Or nothing at all.” 

 

He called your name, not liking this suddenly defeated person in front of him. Who was this woman? What happened to the girl who had been so confident and had stuck with him in the face of actually going against a cult? Who helped him rescue his brother?

 

“Listen, you love that dress. Remember how long we spent looking for a jacket to match it? And how we had debated the heels you had eventually bought to go with it? You were so cute, I thought I would die!” He grinned and attempted to duck in front of you, trying to make you laugh again. But you refused his gaze. Your normally bright eyes were dyed with your negative thoughts.

 

You continued as if he hadn’t interrupted you. “Girly clothes don’t suit me. They never have. But I don’t like sexy clothes. I don’t like stuff that clings to me because I don’t have the body for it. I should just stick with tee shirts.” You muttered.

 

This wasn’t someone Saeyoung knew how to deal with. It was new territory for him. He wasn’t the best at comforting someone, but he wouldn’t let you suffer alone. He just wished that he could figure out how you had managed to break through his own torrent of anxiety and depressing thoughts. 

 

“Hey.” He called, but you still wouldn't look at him. He could see the shame and fear in the tension of your body. You couldn't look at him. He forced you to anyway as he grabbed your face between his hands and made you look at him in the face. His eyes softened as he watched your eyes dart to his and then away and back again, wanting but not wanting to look at him. 

 

He kissed you once, murmuring your name softly. “You are amazing. Everything you wear in front of me stuns me completely. You could-”

 

“Not  _ everything _ .” You denied, amused and disbelieving at the same time.

 

“Almost every single thing!” Saeyoung insisted, pushing through. “You could show up in the rattiest tee shirt I’ve seen in my entire life and pants so baggy that they’re barely staying on your hips and all I would be able to think is, ‘how did  _ she _ choose  _ me _ ?’. I swear, it’s an effort not to hug and kiss you every time I see you! You make it very hard on me.” He added sternly. “I am a very simple Saeyoung trying to go through his life peacefully, and then this...this...ANGEL!” He let go of you and motioned dramatically to the whole of your body. “Quite  _ literally _ comes from another world and completely steals my entire heart! The  _ entire thing _ , honey!” You were smiling now, your cheeks red from his compliments and his ridiculousness. He was relieved to see the light back in your eyes. 

 

“And then! You wear THIS!” He scooped up the dress and held it up so you could see it again. “And I just...I’m somewhere out in space. I was blown off of the planet. I have to colonize a whole new planet because I can no longer to back to Earth because you are so cute you will absolutely kill me.”

 

“So I guess I can’t wear it anymore, huh?” You asked, but now your voice was teasing instead of self-deprecating. He would take that any day.

 

“One of us is going to have to wear this dress on a date, and between the two of us you definitely look much better in it.” He told you seriously. There was no room left for debate about it. You would definitely have to wear the dress on a date with him. 

 

You laughed and took the dress from him, gazing at it once again. Your nerves were still obvious, but you no longer looked as beaten down. He was abruptly overcome with his fury towards your mother and her unnecessary commentary. If this is how she affected you, it only made him angrier that she couldn’t tell. It wasn’t like you were hiding your reactions. He didn’t understand why she couldn’t see that she was upsetting you. 

 

You gave him a weak smile before you went over to the closet and properly hung up the dress. When you finished, you came back over to him and sighed, dropping your forehead to his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you close. In return, you wrapped your arms around his waist, leaning against him.

 

“...I hate that she can get to me still. I thought I had gotten past that.” You murmured.

 

“You have.” He responded in the same tone, tucking his face against the side of your head and kissing the skin he found there. “You know better, remember? You told me that. Now you just have to keep telling yourself that.”

 

You didn’t respond for a long moment. Saeyoung could hear Josephine’s television going in the other room and Dalton talking to someone on the phone. He rubbed a hand up and down your back. Finally you said, “I’ll get better at it. I just need to practice a bit.”

 

He giggled a bit. “Yeah, exactly!”

 

Your arms lifted to instead grab at the back of his shirt, holding him a bit tighter. “...I know you’re busy...but can we stay like this a bit longer?” You asked hesitantly.

 

“We can stay like this as long as you want.” He assured you, kissing your head again. He would stop the world if you asked him to do so. There was nothing that could convince him to leave you when you asked him like that to stay. 

 

You pulled your head back long enough to remove your glasses before you buried your face into his neck. Neither of you spoke for a long time after that.


	21. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I know that it has been quite a while! 
> 
> School is finally over for me and I'm hoping I can get more writing done. I still don't really have a lot of free time, but I do have more than I did.   
> For those of you who are still reading this, thank you so much for your patience and waiting for me. I'm still kind of lost on where I was going with this (I still have an ending planned but, like, in between stuff is kind of a blur) but I'm going to power through. If you guys have suggestions on maybe what MC and Saeyoung can do while in the "real world" or situations, please feel free to let me know either in a comment or by visiting me on my tumblr.

Your days seemed to blur together as you were forced to constantly be doing something. You hadn’t been back in your world for long, but you had put off some important things for far too long. You took only one extra day to make sure Saeyoung was settled and comfortable enough in your mother’s household before you had started borrowing Dalton’s car (your old car, actually. You should make him pay you some for it, but you supposed you were currently rich enough and not nearly mean enough to make him actually do it) to travel around.

 

The first thing you did was visit your father and step-mother. You knew that telling them face-to-face would be better than any kind of phone call. You hadn’t expected the tears that had come to your dad’s face when he realized you were actually there and alive, and you wouldn’t deny that you had started crying too at such a sight. You had never seen your father cry before. You spent the entire day catching up with them and giving them the same story you had told your mother. Naturally they had wanted to meet Saeyoung, but you promised them you would bring him another time considering you could pull the excuse that he was still adjusting. At the end of your visit you promised to go out to dinner with them and bring your fiancé along so that they could meet him properly. It was kind of hard to leave them so soon.

 

Your friends were next. You messaged them all on your group chat and explained that it would be easier if all of you just met up so you could tell the story of what had happened. It was weird travelling so far to meet them without your cell phone because you left it with Saeyoung to use and communicate with your friends in the game. Your friends had once again brought you to tears as they had hugged you and demanded answers to everything that had occurred. Apparently your family hadn’t really told them what had happened and you had just dropped off the map one day.

 

Unlike everyone else you had told the story to, they were absolutely stunned and thrilled to hear that you had entered a game. Admittedly it had taken some convincing considering you didn’t have your phone on you to show them pictures of Saeyoung, but eventually you believed that they had come to accept it. Like your brother, they messed with you about having entered a dating sim game of all things and managing to come back with a lover after eight months.

 

You had to field questions about if you were going to go back to the game or not by saying that you still didn’t even know if it was possible yet and you didn’t want to even think about it until the option had been made available. It was just too awkward telling all of them your thoughts and reservations so soon after just reuniting with them. It felt like you were making a choice of Saeyoung over them and the very thought of it made your heart hurt.

 

Saeyoung was right, you realized. This wasn’t a decision you could just make on the fly. Your knee-jerk reaction is of course to say that you weren’t about to abandon Saeyoung, but reality wasn’t that simple. Seeing the reactions of your loved ones only made it more painful to think of separating from them again. These are your oldest friends and your family, after all. They were people you have known for most if not all of your life. And there was the possibility that you would never see them again. If you chose to go back into the game, there was no guarantee that you would be able to keep in contact with anyone in the real world. You would be separated forever.

 

But…there was a part of you that had already fully made your decision long before you had realized the possibility of staying in the real world. You had been stuck in the game for eight months already. It had been almost a year and during that time you had come to accept the fact that you would never be going home. Yes, you had felt sad about it…but you had already accepted it. You wouldn’t go as far as to say that you had moved on…but the world had beckoned you with new and exciting things. New friends to get to know and a new life to start. An entirely new story for you to go through without the hassle of anything like money or visas or anything like that. It was a brand new start.

 

And that was so exciting to you. It was probably one of the things you wish could have happened to you. The best thing that could have happened to you. No, the events of the game weren’t ideal and you still mourned at the knowledge that the route you chose had caused V to be killed, but the good outweighed the bad in your opinion. You had a new life, friends, a new country to explore, an arguably entire new world, and you had someone that you loved right beside you. Even if worse-case scenario happened and you and Saeyoung broke up, you honestly couldn’t see yourself losing the friendships you had developed with the RFA and the love you had been building in the new world.

 

So there was a part of you that had already made its choice. You had a feeling that if you really wanted to, you could willingly turn your gaze away from your real life friends and family (no matter how painful the thought was) and return to the game with Saeyoung.

 

The two of you laid on the bed together gazing unseeingly at the ceiling as the lights of fake stars from the galaxy lamp Saeyoung had bought rotated around the room. It felt secretive and secluded in your dark room with just the two of you cuddled together. You could feel Saeyoung’s pulse through his wrist and fingers as you played with them idly, head resting against his shoulder as you had murmured out your thoughts for him to survey and comment upon. Your skin itched with anxiety waiting for his judgement. Part of you wanted him to tell you that it would be a shit thing to do to abandon your life here, but the other part was terrified that he would. You did, but didn’t, want confirmation on your feelings.

 

Saeyoung gave a big yawn and shifted around, stretching his legs some before dropping his head to let it press to the top of your head. “This is why I wanted you to think about it more.” He told you finally after contemplating it for a little bit. It was already so late and admittedly you were pretty exhausted, but somehow you had gotten used to Saeyoung’s night-owl schedule recently. It would take some time before you could correct your internal clock again. That, and you had been texting Jaehee and Zen for a couple hours while Saeyoung had been typing loudly at his computers. The external cooling fans could be pretty loud as well as the typing and clicking. You understood why he wore headphones while he worked now.

 

“Thinking about it is just making me more confused, I think.” You said with a sigh.

 

“Ahh, yeah I know.” He murmured sympathetically.

 

A silence fell between you two while you waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, you lifted your head to glance at him with a frown. “You’re not even going to try to give me advice?”

 

“Nope!” He popped the ‘p’ loudly, turning his head away from your gaze. The hand that you were playing with became active and held yours, squeezing it once before he returned his gaze to yours. He brought your combined hands to brush a strand of hair away from your face. “It’s not up to me to give you advice.”

 

“Yes, it is!” You argued, releasing his hand and sitting up to glare at him a bit. “You’re going to be my husband, after all! It’s practically a requirement that we give each other advice!” You huffed once to calm down a bit and consciously work to lower your voice. Your family was trying to sleep, after all. “Besides,” you said in a quieter tone, “I’m always open to your advice.”

 

He gave a soft groan and then sat up on his elbows. “That’s not what I mean. Think about it for a minute: what kind of advice would I even give you?”

 

“I don’t know? Something that helps me feel better about my decisions?” You shrugged.

 

“No, I would tell you something to convince you to come back with me to the game if…when we figure out how.” You fell silent, staring at him. Even in the dim light you could see his serious and saddened face. He sat up fully, blanket pooling around his hips as he rubbed at his eyes. He was tired and you were keeping him up now. You felt guilty.

 

“…Is that such a problem?” You asked quietly. “I mean, I already know that you want me to come with you. And you already know I want to stay with you too.”

 

“Pressuring you won’t make your decision easier.” He reached out to touch your cheek. Your cheeks warmed at his touch, a bit embarrassed at the intimacy. Even so, you scooted closer to him so he wouldn’t have to reach as far. “You didn’t push me to decide what to do back before we started dating. Back when my life was at its own turning point. And I’m not going to do that to you now.”

 

You groaned, dropping your face to his shoulder. “You shouldn’t follow my example! It makes my life harder!”

 

He laughed, giving your shoulder a sympathetic pat. “I think your example works out well, though~”

 

“It always works out better for others.” You grumbled but you had already accepted that Saeyoung would not help you decide. You were a little relieved about it, actually, even while it made you more nervous. You would rather such a decision be yours.

 

You pulled him into a hug and dropped you both back down to lay on the bed, peeking over the curve of his throat to gaze at the stars dancing steadily across the walls. The action made you eyes sleepier. “Am I a bad person for wanting to leave, do you think?”

 

Saeyoung didn’t respond. You felt and saw him swallow, which made you smile just a bit before you shifted yourself away from him and into a more comfortable laying position. It was too hot to be so cuddled up together. His eyes were closed as he said, “I think…that everyone has to leave their family at some point. And that lives change. Does it mean we can’t miss how things used to be? No…So…Mmmm… I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Um, I think it might be worse if you didn’t feel anything.”

 

You stared at him. “Do you think its because of my mother?” You whispered before you could think to hide such a question. You cringed a little at it.

 

He turned his head to look at you as well. His eyes were hard to see when he was turned away from the light. But you felt his gaze boring into you. Finally he shifted onto his side and frowned at you seriously. “Can I tell you a secret?” He murmured.

 

“Yeah, always.” You responded immediately in the same tone.

 

“Hehe, thanks.” He took a breath and then said, “After I had left my childhood home…I sometimes missed my mother too. Not very often and usually it was a quick thing before I remembered and pushed the thought away…but I did miss her sometimes.”

 

The very thought shook you a bit. You had only heard some tales of his childhood, but it had been enough to make you hate his mother. Especially when you saw what kind of damage it had done to Saeran. The thought of someone missing their abuser…it wasn’t unusual. You had heard it before too. And your mother wasn’t nearly as bad. Maybe then she wasn’t the reason you didn’t feel bad that part of you wanted to leave. But what, then, _did_ cause you not to feel bad? Something worse? You didn’t know. That was a scary thought.

 

You took his hand in yours, unsure of how to respond to such a confession. “That’s not unusual.”  You muttered, going the logical route as you attempted to comfort him. “I’ve heard of a lot of stories like that.”

 

“Yeah, I know. I have too.”

 

“Ugh,” you groaned, “I’m such shit at this.” You laughed a bit at yourself. “We’re both tired. I should shut up about all of this for a while. We don’t even know how long it will take to go home.”

 

“You do have time to think on it more. This doesn’t have to be a one-night problem.”

 

“Yeah…I think I will do that then. Just…let’s just sleep.” A yawn cracked through you and you turned your head away to not yawn straight in his face. He laughed at you. You turned back to him with a soft smile. “Thank you for telling me…and giving me advice even when you said you wouldn’t.”

 

“You tricked me…!” He gasped. “But…you’re welcome.” You met him in a gentle kiss. You could feel in the way he moved his own exhaustion. You felt bad for keeping him up still. So you bid him a good night and settled down to finally sleep although your thoughts didn’t stop.

 

You tried to focus on the present first and what all you needed to do next. Maybe tomorrow you would just stay home and do some more research on Saeyoung’s game instead. Maybe spend some time with your family since you hadn’t been doing so as much. There was a lot you needed to catch up on. Further thought on whether you would stay or go could wait until you actually had a deadline to think about these things. Nothing was even guaranteed yet. You worried that Saeyoung wouldn’t even be able to go back to his home. You missed the RFA and the world you had gotten used to. You wished that the game had never ended. Then you felt bad for being so selfish.

 

You slept fitfully that night with your mind filled with stress dreams that left you even more tired when you woke up. You were awake long before Saeyoung was.


	22. Chapter 18

> ** Yoosung **
> 
> **So it’s weird being back with your family?**
> 
> **Unfortunately ;;**
> 
> **I missed my brother and my animals but…**
> 
> **I mostly feel guilty.**
> 
> **It’s not like you chose to come to our world!**
> 
> **But still....**
> 
> **Well if it makes you feel better we’ve all been really worried about you two!**
> 
> **I think Saeran has been working really hard.**
> 
> **Zen has been checking him a lot.**
> 
> **I’m kind of scared of how he can work so much. T-T**
> 
> **I guess that’s something both of the twins share?**
> 
> **I hope Saeran doesn’t overwork himself, though :(**
> 
> **I force Saeyoung to take breaks at least. I’ll mention it to him to remind his brother as well.**
> 
> **It’s not healthy! I mean, I stayed up late a lot too when I was gaming**
> 
> **But this isn’t good for anybody!**
> 
> **Saeyoung just told me that he and Saeran try to take turns working.**
> 
> **...Really?**
> 
> **Yeah, I don’t really believe it either.**
> 
> **Please take care of Saeran!**
> 
> **We will!**
> 
> **Although…**
> 
> **I really hope that they get the app working for you again…**
> 
> **Same.**
> 
> **Texting isn’t as easy as the chatroom.**
> 
> **And I want to know more about your experience with the, um, game.**

 

You sat back with sigh and placed your phone aside as you scooped up another spoonful of mint chocolate chip ice cream into your mouth. You sucked on the spoon taking your time to really enjoy the flavor as you idly watched the TV to catch up on the many episodes of your shows you had missed. Dalton kept scolding you for playing on your phone while you were both watching your shows, but you had always felt the need to multitask. It was hard for you to just sit still and watch something. And you had missed talking to Yoosung.

 

You were worried about Saeran. At least you could watch over Saeyoung and make sure he got sleep and food in him, but Saeran had even worse habits than his brother when it came to his health. You both had only just been able to get him to really start caring about his health before the game had ended and now you both were there. It made you nervous. You really did hope that Saeyoung wasn’t lying and that Saeran really was rotating job-duties with him, but you weren’t sure you could quite believe it. You wanted to talk to them.

 

You looked to Saeyoung. He was hyper-focused on his computer over at the computer desk. He had put on his headphones again since you had last asked him about Saeran. You could pressure him to tell you more or maybe get him to talk to Saeran, but you didn’t think you should disturb him like that again for the time being. Instead you stood up with your bowl and dug out another portion of the ice cream. You watched the TV as you approached him and held out the spoon to Saeyoung’s mouth. He didn’t even look away from his computer as he took the bite and hummed his pleasure and thanks.

 

You could hear music faintly coming through his headphones over the sound of the television. It was a song that you had gotten him into during the trip to the mall, which made you smile. You didn’t touch him as you glanced at what he was doing. It looked like he was in a chatroom of some sort, but the code was all exposed on the screen. You had thought your typing speed was impressive, but it was nothing compared to Saeyoung’s long fingers practically dancing across the keys. You wondered if Saeyoung or Jaehee had a faster typing speed.

 

Your phone buzzed in your pocket again rapidly, blowing up with multiple text messages. You grabbed another bit of ice cream and once again offered it to Saeyoung. This time he met your gaze with bright, excited eyes as he took the offered bite. You recognized that look from when he was onto something. You almost asked him what it was but decided not to bother him more when he was in this state. He was the most productive like this. Instead you gave him an encouraging smile before you returned to sit next to your brother on the couch and continue the show and text.

 

> ** Yoosung **
> 
> **Texting isn’t as easy as the chatroom.**
> 
> **And I want to know more about your experience with the, um, game.**
> 
> **It still doesn’t feel real, you know?**
> 
> **How can our entire world be a game? It doesn’t make any sense.**
> 
> **Does that mean that everything we’ve done was all scripted?**
> 
> **How many people have played our game? Do we just lose memory of all of them?**
> 
> **Are you still there?**
> 
> **I didn’t scare you off, did I? ;-;**
> 
> **Relax, Yoosung! I’m here. I was just busy.**
> 
> **And you blew up my phone.**
> 
> **Oh good!**
> 
> **I think...questions like that would be better discussed in a group.**
> 
> **There’s no point in repeating myself so many times.**
> 
> **But...that means I must wait so long…**
> 
> **I’ll do one big interview once Saeyoung and Saeran finish the chatroom.**
> 
>  

“Are you just going to play on your phone the entire time? You’re not even watching the show!” Dalton grumped. He tossed a pen at you, causing you to yelp before you glared at him.

 

“You’re constantly texting. You have no room to talk!” You argued.

 

“Yeah, but _I’ve_ seen everything already! Unlike SOMEBODY who was too busy being stuck in a GAME to watch our shows with me!”

 

“Sorry I was too busy having a life.” You sniffed and placed your empty ice cream bowl on the table. Socks came over to sniff curiously at it, which you took quick advantage of to grab her and hold her. She froze with a meow of unhappiness, but you held onto her anyway to pet her soft fur. Despite her struggles she still purred loudly. You kissed her head while Dalton scratched at her cheek.

 

“A life in a video game.” He countered.

 

“You’re just jealous. Don’t worry. When Saeyoung figures out what happened, I’ll make sure he helps you enter your Dark Souls game.”

 

“NO!”

 

You snickered before Saeyoung cried out and threw his arms up. Both you and Dalton jumped, and Socks clawed her way from your lap to run off at the noise. Saeyoung pulled his headphones off and continued to cheer, spinning in the office chair and grinning like a maniac.

 

“Babe, quick!” He called to you, thrusting out his hand. “Give me the phone!” You were quick to toss it to him while you and Dalton joined his side. Saeyoung continued to giggle to himself in joy as he pulled up the game’s app and called up his brother.

 

“What happened?” You asked, grabbing his shoulder.

 

“Hang on, hang on! Be patient!” He switched languages the moment Saeran picked up. His fingers began typing rapidly again on his computer. You watched as he typed up on the computer a series of “hellos” and then simple sentences. For a long time, nothing appeared. Anticipation itched at your skin while you and Dalton leaned over his shoulders watch. Then, after a full minute, words began to appear back.

 

You gasped in delight. “Saeyoung! Is that-?”

 

You didn’t need to finish as he cheered again and threw himself from the chair to do a little dance, spinning around and clapping his hands. Finally, he turned to you both and threw his hands out. “We’ve got connection, baby!”

 

“Oh my god, that’s amazing!” You threw yourself at him seeing as he very eagerly wanted it. “I can’t believe you managed to create a chatroom that connects to a _video game_!”

 

“How the heck did you do it?” Dalton asked. He was reading more of the words that were being typed onto the computer.

 

“I’m great, right? I’m amazing, right?” Saeyoung kept fishing for compliments.

 

“Yes! You’re all of that and more!” You moved to wrap your arms around your neck and hug him tighter.

 

“Kyaaa~! You actually said it~!” He kissed your cheek quickly before spinning you back around to point at the screen and sit you in the seat. “Go on and type something! It’s Saeran! Don’t let it be too simple, though. We’re testing how it does with complicated sentences.” He then spoke something quickly into the phone while you tried to think of something to write. You didn’t do super well under such expected pressure.

 

“Come on.” Dalton nudged you. “I’ll type something if you don’t!”

 

“Don’t you dare!” You growled at him before typing onto the computer.

 

> **You: Saeran just so you know I have an annoying brother too and I feel your pain.**

 

Both Saeyoung and Dalton made offended noises at that. Dalton even wiggled his hands at the computer feigning an attempt at typing. You swatted him backwards.

>  
> 
> **Unknown: That explains your tolerance level for Hyung’s nonsense.**

 

Your head quirked a bit to the side. “Um, I think there’s a typo.” You glanced at Saeyoung, but he shook his head. He hung up with Saeran and leaned on your head. His weight didn’t feel that great on your neck.

 

“No, that’s not a mistake. Your language doesn’t use things like that. He’s referring to me.”

 

“I kind of figured that. What does it mean?”

 

“Um...basic translation could be ‘older brother’, but it’s not always a family thing.” He paused and then cried out, “Wait! You’re getting hung up on the wrong thing!! Look, it’s translating properly!”

 

“Wait, he’s writing in Korean?” You asked, shocked. “You already have a translator going?”

 

“It looks like it’s still having trouble at parts, but yeah. It didn’t translate your sentence that great to his end he said.” He huffed and pooched his lips in thought.

 

“Hold on.” Dalton interrupted, holding up his hands. “Did you seriously just invent a translator in only a couple weeks?”

 

“I haven’t been working on the translator this entire time.” Saeyoung corrected. “Most of my time I was trying to figure out the chatroom.”

 

“But you made a _translator_?”

 

“Oh ho! Impressed?” He snickered and let out a pleased sigh. “I’m a genius, after all. It’s not difficult to do these things.”

 

“He made me a robot cat in about two days before.” You added with giddiness building in your chest as well as affection and pride. You rather liked bragging once in a while, you thought.

 

“Yeah, yeah! Ah, I miss Meowy.”

 

“He really is a video game character.” Dalton said.

 

Saeyoung decided to take that as a compliment and puffed up just a bit more. “Obviously the best one there is! Well, anyway,” he turned back to the computer and threw himself down into the chair, “we still need to fix a couple of things before it’ll be useful. Run a couple more tests.”

 

“You should take a break.” You suggested, running your hands over his forehead to pull his fringe from his face.

 

“I’ll take a break in a bit. I really want to finish this.”

 

“So you guys can start messaging your friends again, right?” Dalton asked.

 

“Correct! But also…” His voice lowered some, “because once we get this going, things will be much easier for me and Saeran to collaborate and send each other information back and forth. We can finally start figuring out the code more now that we can actually directly message each other. And from there…”

 

“...We can see how to trigger entering the game again without resetting.” You finished. Your stomach bubbled with nerves and excitement. The future you thought might be far away was closer than before. It made you happy and scared at the same time.

 

You didn’t want to think about that now. “But after you fix up the little details, you and Saeran should both take a break.” You insisted. “You have been working too hard.”

 

“I’ve told Saeran that, but I can’t force him to do anything.” Saeyoung muttered. “It’s not like I’m there.”

 

You watched Saeyoung’s frown as the man typed again. You didn’t bother to read the messages that the brothers were sending each other. Guilt coiled itself around you as you saw longing flit past Saeyoung’s gaze before he returned himself properly to his task. If it wasn’t for you, Saeyoung would still be with the brother he still wasn’t even used to having back. Saeran was only just really recovering from everything he had gone through with Magenta and Mint Eye. Neither of the men had seen each other since they were boys, and now because of you they were separated again.

 

What would things have been like if Saeyoung hadn’t grabbed you? If you had returned all on your own? Would it have been like a dream? Would the game have reset? You had a feeling that things would be very different for you. After all, what would you be like without Saeyoung by your side anymore? Would he even bother to go through all of this effort for you, or would he have just accepted you were gone?

 

Anxiety gnawed at you even as you tried to fight it off by assuring yourself that that wouldn’t have been the case. You wanted to ask Saeyoung, but you feared the answer. Nevertheless, you weren’t one to deny yourself answers even at the cost of your own mental safety net.

 

Hesitantly you wrapped your arms around Saeyoung’s neck from behind and pressed your face to your arms. You heard Saeyoung pause and his head turned slightly in your direction. You didn’t understand why you were being so weak in front of him. You used to be so strong back during the game. Why were you so insecure now?

 

“What is it?” He murmured in a quiet voice to you. It soothed a bit of your nerves but still you needed more.

 

“Would you have gone through all of this effort...if I was the only one to have left the game?” You whispered.

 

Saeyoung shifted a bit. “What?”

 

You lifted your head a little so he could hear you better. “If you hadn’t grabbed me...and you had stayed in the game with everyone else...would you have gone through all of this effort to help me?”

 

His hand grabbed your forearm and you felt him try to turn. You reluctantly lifted your head and pulled back a bit to see his confused golden eyes searching you. The frown on his face was serious as he asked, “Why would you ask that?”

 

You said nothing, avoiding his gaze.

 

Saeyoung stood then and broke your hold but did not release your arm. You had no choice as you followed him into the kitchen and away from the eyes of your brother. You both went around the corner where Saeyoung made you face him. Your eyes kept finding his and skittering away. You tried not to focus on the weight in your heart as it raced.

 

His hand trailed down your arm and found your hand where he held it tightly. Then he said, “You’re worried about what would’ve happened if I was still in the game? I wouldn’t just abandon you. I would’ve worked even harder, if I’m honest.”

 

“What?” You asked as your head shot up with surprise to finally look at him properly.

 

“Of course!” He grinned then. “I wouldn’t have you there to tell me to constantly take breaks. I would work day and night to get these programs working just so I could see you. God…” He pulled you into his arms and hugged you. “You remember how crazy I was when I couldn’t see you on the cameras or when we were in the apartment. If you were in another world I might completely lose my ability to not freak out!”

 

You could only laugh a little to yourself. Of course that was it. You had been worrying over nothing. You hugged him tighter and murmured, “Thank you.”

 

“I always said you were an angel for worrying about all of us, but sometimes your worry gets to you way too much, honey.” Saeyoung pulled back and kissed you briefly before kissing your forehead and releasing you. “You shouldn’t worry now. The plot is moving forward and we’re almost ready to talk to everyone again!” He threw his hands up in excitement. “Now then, soldier! Go back and watch your shows while I finish!”

 

You saluted him, straightening. “Sir, yes sir!” Both of you laughed as you returned back to the living room. Soon you would be able to talk to everyone again. It was enough to be ecstatic about.

 


End file.
